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 AMERICAN 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS: 
 
 AS E]S;:OT fEU JNT ' E 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 iJllSl ANjNUAL COi,TEl(TIOK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ^T^-ilCAX NORMAL SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 HELD AT TREFTOIvr, NEW JERSEY, 
 
 AUGUST 19 AND SO, 1859. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 PUBLISHED BY A. S. BAENES & BURE, 
 
 51 Axu 53 JOHN STllEET. 
 1860. 
 
 11-- 
 
University of California. 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 Dr. JOSEPH LeCONTE. 
 
 GIFT OF MRS. LECONTE. 
 
 No, 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive 
 
 in 2007 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/americannormalscOOamerrich 
 
PROCEEDINaS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL CONYENTIOK 
 
^^r 
 
 or 
 
 f* 
 

 
 n 
 
AMERICAN 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS: 
 
 AS EMBODIED IN THE 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST AJ(i\UAL CONVENTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 HELD AT TRENTON", NEW JERSEY, 
 
 AUGUST 19 AND 20, 1859. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & BURR, 
 
 51 AND 53 JOHN STREET. 
 1860. 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Letter from Hon. Edward Everett 
 
 S. S. Randall, Esq 
 
 Address of the President 17 
 
 Prof. Crosby's Paper < 19 
 
 Discuss^ioN.— Remarks of Hon. Geo. B. Emerson — Hon. Richard S. Field — 
 Rev. Dr. McJilton— Prof. Phelps— Prof. John S. Hart— Mr. Greenleaf 
 —Mr. J. W. Dickinson— Prof. S. M. Hamill— Prof. J. P. Wickersham 
 
 —Rev. B. G. Northrop— Gen. H. K. Oliver— G. N. Bigelow, Esq 36 
 
 Election of Officers 47 
 
 Discussion. — Remarks of Prof. Phelps— Gov. Boutwell — Prof C. E. Hovey 
 — Mr. Emerson— Prof. Crosby — Prof. D. P. Colburn — Mr. Peckham- 
 Mr. Dickinson — Mr. Rowe— Prof. D. N. Camp — Mr. F. A. Sawyer — 
 
 Dr. E. C. Wines- Prof. Wickersham— Dr. McJilton— Prof. Hart 47 
 
 Prof. Ogden's Paper 60 
 
 Mr. Edwabds' Paper 73 
 
 Ihscussiojsr. — Remarks of Prof Camp — Mr. N. T. Allen — Mr. Hollister — 
 Prof. Wickersham— Prof. Phelps— Prof G. N. Bigelow— Hon. Geo. B. 
 
 Emerson — Mr. Ogden 90 
 
 Reports of States 97 
 
 Discussion. — Remarks of the President— Mr. Dickinson— Dr. McJilton — 
 Mr. Parish— Mr, Emerson — Mr. Northrop— Prof. D. N. Camp — Mr. 
 Ogden— Prof. D. P. Colburn— Prof. Wickersham— Prof Smith— Prof. 
 Hovey — Mr. Silas Betts— Prof Phelps— Mr. Rowe— Gen. Oliver— Prof 
 
 Crosby— Hon. Henry Barnard 98 
 
 Report of Committee on Resolutions 106 
 
 Resolutions with reference to the Life, and Labors, and Death of Horace 
 
 Mann 107 
 
 Remarks of Gen. H. K. Oliver— Ariel Parish, Esq.— Hon, Henry Barnard 
 
 — Hon. Anson Smyth 107 
 
 Letter of Horace Mann 112 
 
 ji r' {r% f^ ^ 
 
EEMAKKS PREFATORY. 
 
 The first meeting of the officers of the Normal Schools of our country- 
 was held informally in connection with that of the American Association 
 for the Advancement of Education in the city of ]N"ew York in 1855. Tiiis 
 meeting was private in its character, and was devoted to a free inter- 
 change of views and opinions on subjects connected with the practical 
 working of our Normal Schools. 
 
 A second meeting was held at Springfield, in August, 1856, imme- 
 diately succeeding the session of the American Institute of Instruction. 
 The discussions on this occasion were pubftc and were of an exceedingly 
 interesting and instructive character. The Normal Schools of Massachu- 
 setts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Canada 
 were severally represented at the Springfield meeting, and measures were 
 there taken to perfect a permanent organization of the principals, teach- 
 ers, and friends of these institutions for the promotion of their peculiar 
 interests. A committee was raised to prepare a constitution to be re- 
 ported at the next meeting, and to perfect arrangements for the future. 
 
 The third meeting convened at Albany in 1857, cotemporaneously with 
 that of the American Association for the Advancement of Education. 
 Owing to a misunderstanding as to the time and place, this meeting was 
 an entirely informal one, and but few were present. 
 
 The fourth meeting occurred at Norwich, Conn., in August, 1858. It 
 was small, but earnest in its spirit and purpose. The constitution was 
 reported and adopted, and permanent officers were elected. A discussion 
 arose as to the n^ost effective means for advancing the objects of the Associ- 
 ation. The conclusion reached was unanimously favorable to a conven- 
 tion of all interested in the cause of Normal Schools to be held at Trenton, 
 New Jersey, in August, 1859. In accordance with this conclusion, the 
 First Annual Convention of the Association, whose proceedings are here- 
 with published, took place as above stated. 
 
 By the unanimous desire of the friends of the movement, the plans and 
 elevations of the principal Normal School buildings are embodied in this 
 publication. It is earnestly hoped that the proceedings will tend to 
 awaken a greater degree of interest in behalf of these noble institutions 
 than has heretofore obtained throughout our country. . 
 
vill LETTERS. 
 
 Tlia subjoined are a few of the many letters received from eminent 
 frienids of education heartily approving of the object'^ of the Convention : 
 
 [copy.] 
 From the Hon. Edward Everett. 
 
 Boston, \%th Sept., 1859. 
 
 My Dear Sir — I have received your favor of the 5th instant. Inces- 
 sant occupations of a very pressing nature liave prevented an earlier 
 refjly, and now put it out of my power to enlarge upon the subject of 
 Normal Schools. The time, however, is gone by when they stood in 
 need of any testimonies to their value and importance. 
 
 The success which has attended these institutions in diiferent parts of 
 tl)e country— and nowhere probably more than in New Jersey — has 
 spoken with an emphasis in their favor which needs no confirmation. 
 The community perceives and admits that if education is one of the most 
 important concerns of society — most closely connected, not only with its 
 material prosperity, but with its highest moral interests, it ought to be 
 tJie subject of skillful and systematic training and preparation. Other- 
 wise we should be involved in the absurdity that those operations, influ- 
 ences, and processes which form the best preparation for all the great pur- 
 suits and duties of life, could thi^mselves be applied and administered with- 
 out previous discipline. It was my privilege and good fortune, while 
 Governor of Massachusetts, to co-oj)erate in the establishment of the 
 Normal Schools in this State, and my views of the importance of these 
 institutions are expressed, at some length, in a discourse delivered at the 
 inauguration of one of them in 1839, and which will be found in the 
 printed collection of my public addresses. 
 
 I remain, dear sir, with much respect, very truly, yours, 
 
 Wm. F. Phelps, Esq. Edward Everett. 
 
 From S. S. Randall, Fsq. 
 City Supkrintendent's Office, New York, Aug. 8, 1859. 
 
 "Wm. F. Phelps, A.M., Pres. Am. Normal School Association: Bear 
 Sir — I regret exceedingly tliat the state of my health will not permit me 
 to be pi-esent at the ensuing meeting of the Association over which you 
 have the honor to preside. The objects of that Association have my 
 hearty concurrence and high appreciation. The great want of the age, 
 in the educational field, is unc^uestionably a class of thoroughly trained, 
 practical, professional teachers; and these, in my judgment, can be pro- 
 vided only through the agency of institutions expressly prepared for and 
 exclusively devoted ti> that purpose. Much, indeed, has already been ac- 
 complished in this direction in our own country, and the standard of 
 qualification required of teachers generally has been sensibly elevated 
 within the past ten years. Much, however — very much — remains yet to 
 be attained, and I trust the intelligent and devoted body of gentlemen 
 composing your Association will not cease their labors until some sys- 
 tcinatic and comprehensive plan shall have been devised for the accom- 
 l»lishment of the great object they have in view. 
 
 One great defect, as it seems to me, in all, or nearly all our existing 
 institutions for the preparation of teachers, is the devotion of so large a 
 {iortion of the cause to mere elementary instruction — to the acquisition 
 
LETTERS. IX 
 
 of the various branches of study required to be taught. In tlie earlier 
 stages of Normal instruction this was unavoidable and indispensable. 
 Has not the period, however, arrived, or may we not, at least, look for- 
 ward to its speedy arrival, when all these details may be required and 
 insisted upon as a condition precedent to admission in these institutions'? 
 Should not the Normal course be purely Normal,, as its name imports, and 
 be restricted, or rather expanded, to its legitimate objects, the art and 
 science of teaching? Is there not here full and ample scope for the expe- 
 rience, talents, and practical abilities of the highest order of mind spread 
 over the utmost available length of time that can be devoted to this pur- 
 pose ? And should the efforts and energy of the professors and teachers 
 of these institutions be suffered to be longer frittered away for months 
 and years in mere comnmnication of that scientific knowledge which can 
 equally well be obtained from the high school or the academy, and the 
 possession of which should be regarded as the indispensable available 
 capital of the student on his entrance into the Normal Hall ? 
 
 This solid and substantial foundation having been previously laid, the 
 ability to communicate the knowledge thus obtained in all its details in the 
 most skillful, efficient, and judicious manner, will constitute a prominent 
 and important — though, in my judgment, not the most prominent or im- 
 portant — portion of Normal teaching. Education embraces within its 
 purview something of infinitely greater consequence than the communi- 
 cation of knowledge, however thorough and comprehensive. Its essen- 
 tial value consists in the formation, development, and direction of charac- 
 ter ; and so far, and so far only, as it fulfills this its great mission, is it of 
 any real or practical value. And when I speak of character in this con- 
 nection, I mean something more than external appearance — the disguises 
 of life — the mask of the mere actor on the stage of human events. I 
 refer to the real, the interior, the essential cliaracter — the immoi'tal and 
 spiritual being itself — that which exists from tiie innermost heart — that 
 which in the deepest recesses of our nature impels every motive and orig- 
 inates every action of our lives — that which in the long run makes us 
 what we are, and which is destined to accompany us throughout the lim- 
 itless future. AVith this it is the teacher's business and duty to deal ; and 
 for this, with whatever expenditure of cost or pains, he should be pre- 
 pared. I need not enlarge upon the vast and varied field here opened up 
 to the Normal teacher, nor expatiate at greater length upon its import- 
 ance and the solemn responsibilities it involves. To me it seems the only 
 worthy object of ambition and attainment. I would have every teacher 
 graduated at our Normal halls, approximate as nearly as may be to the 
 exalted standard of an Arnold and a Page, and in proportion to the num- 
 ber of such teachers sent forth annually into the field of educational labor 
 should I feel disposed to estimate the value or the success of the institu- 
 tion. 
 
 I can not permit myself to conclude this already too extended commu- 
 nication without mingling my deepest sympathies with those of the body 
 you represent, and of the friends of education everywhere, on the lament- 
 ed death of the great and good Horace Mann. That we shall no more 
 listen to his eloquent voice — no more mingle with him in council — no 
 more co-operate with Inm in those expansive and comprehensive views 
 which embraced the highest possible perfection of our common- human- 
 ity, through free and universal education — that our spirits and our ener- 
 
X LETTERS. 
 
 gies are no longer to be elevated, exalted, pui-ified, and strengthened by 
 the electric influence of his living voice and the "daily beauty" of his- 
 noble example — these are indeed melancholy reflections. Let us, how- 
 ever, reverently and aifectionately cherish his memory, and endeavor, so 
 far as in us lies, to follow in his footsteps, and imitate his all-embracing 
 philanthropy, his ardent aspirations for excellence, and the genuine purity 
 of his stainle&s life. Very respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 S. S. Randall. 
 
AMERICAN 
 
 NOEIAL SCHOOL CONYENTION. 
 
 The American Normal School Association convened in the 
 new hall of the Normal* School at Trenton, N. J., on Wednesday, 
 Aug. 17, 1859, and was opened with prayer by Rev. Edward D. 
 Yeomans. 
 
 The President, Wm. F. Phelps, Esq., welcomed the Association 
 to Trenton, and offered the following remarks as to the plan and 
 purpose of the meeting : 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 The President then said : In the multiplicity of educa- 
 tional associations with which our country abounds, it seems 
 necessary to offer some reasons and explanations for adding 
 to the number. I will therefore endeavor to state, as nearly 
 as possible, some of the objects for which this Convention 
 is called at this time. 
 
 It is a commonplace truth, that the great want of our 
 country is that of an efficient system of popular education. 
 It is also self-evident that universal education is possible 
 only through the universal diffusion of a system of well-con- 
 ducted schools. It is further admitted, that the teachers make 
 tlie schools; that "as is the teacher, so will be the school." 
 
 After a somewhat varied experience of two hundred years 
 and more, we find that still the great want of our schools is 
 that of truly qualified teachers. As a consequence of that 
 
18 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 state of facts, the enlightened friends of education in our 
 country, something more than twenty years ago, moved for 
 the establishment of Normal Schools, as they are called ; 
 otherwise better known as Teachers' Seminaries, whose 
 objects should be the special, thorough training of teachers. 
 After this experience of twenty years, the friends of these 
 institutions have become fully satisfied that upon them must 
 we depend for the supply of this great want. 
 
 The educational statistics of this country, so far as we can 
 master them, exhibit some startling facts ; among these, is 
 this, that the great majority of the teachers in the common 
 schools are utterly unfit for their high and responsible du- 
 ties. Our higher institutions, academies, ancl, to some 
 extent, our colleges, have been relied upon to supply this 
 want. But experience has taught us that that reliance for 
 a full supply is vain. 
 
 We have, therefore, but one resource left ; and to the 
 Normal Schools of the country do the thoughts of tlie friends 
 of education inevitably turn. We -find that we are now 
 warranted in making an ao-orressive movement in favor of 
 Normal Schools. To inaugurate this movement, this Con- 
 vention has been called — to advertise, to popularize Normal 
 Schools ; for, after all, the great mass of the people know 
 little and understand less in respect to them. AYhat this 
 meeting hopes to accomplish is, to make our people better 
 acquainted with them. 
 
 Another purpose, and perhaps a more important one, is 
 that of improving the character of those whicli already 
 exist, and those which may hereafter be established ; and 
 by improvement, I mean to be understood that our object is 
 to make them more fully answer their true, original design, 
 that of preparing professional teachers. 
 
 There is but one way of salvation for the Normal Schools, 
 
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT. 19 
 
 and tliat is, they must be truly professional schools for train- 
 ing teaciiers. The difference between them and the ordi- 
 nary literary institutions of our country must be so marked 
 that '' he who runs may read." I think that wherever they 
 have failed, the explanation may be found in the fact that 
 they have not been normal, not professional enough to 
 commend themselves to the common sense of our people. 
 
 The great object of the Convention will be to discuss 
 practical measures, the adoption of which will enable us to 
 realize more fully the true objects for which these institu- 
 tions are established. 
 
 The Presedent then stated what the order of exercises would be, 
 viz , the reading of certain papers by gentlemen who had been desig- 
 nated, and discussions upon them. 
 
 Messrs. Crosby, Hovey, and Colburn were appointed a committee 
 on nominations. 
 
 Prof. Alpheus Crosby, of the Salem Normal School, Mass., was 
 then introduced, who read the following paper on the " Proper Sphere 
 and Work of the American Normal School.^' 
 
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen and Ladies of the 
 Association : If I were allowed to enter upon the discussion 
 of a theme so broad as this, and so fundamental to the inves- 
 tigations for which we have assembled, with carte hlanche as 
 to limits, I know not how much of your time and of my own 
 I should feel bound to consume in an attempt to do my sub- 
 ject justice. But I have been wisely, and I feel, no less 
 kindly, restricted to twenty-five minutes. There is, then, 
 but one alternative : either to select from the many points 
 that claim attention one or two only for a somewhat full 
 treatment ; or, on the other hand, to place before you a 
 simple outline of the subject in its principal parts for you 
 to fill up, in your subsequent remarks, with the coloring 
 of beauty — to present a skeleton for your to cover with flesh 
 
20 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 and inspire witli life. The latter course seeins to me to cor- 
 respond the better with the proper design of such an intro- 
 ductory paper as I have been requested to prepare. If the 
 bones thus presented should seem, like those in the valley 
 of the prophet's vision, very dry, bear this patiently, antic- 
 ipating their reanimation, when breath after breath from 
 those around shall blow upon them. 
 
 First, then, what is the essential difference hetween a Nor- 
 mal School and other Schools f 
 
 Institutions of learning may obviously be divided into 
 two great classes — the general, and the professional ; the 
 former including the common school, high school, academy, 
 and college, as these terms are usually employed ; and the 
 latter, theological, law, and medical scliools, military and 
 naval institutions, and schools of agriculture, commerce, 
 mechanics, mining, the fine arts, etc. It is evident that the 
 jSTormal School belongs to the latter of these classes, the 
 professional, having been established not merely for the 
 general discipline or culture of those who may attend it, 
 but for their special preparation to meet the demands of a 
 particular profession, that of the Teacher, or, to use the 
 broader and more strictly appropriate term, of the Edu- 
 cator. Whatever characteristics, then, belong to the pro- 
 fessional school, as distinguished from the institution of 
 general learning, must belong to this, and these character- 
 istics must be still farther modified by the peculiar nature 
 and office of the great profession for wliich it aims to pre- 
 pare. It ought obviously to have the definiteness of pur- 
 pose, the thoroughness, the scientific basis, and the practical 
 applications which are so essential to the very idea of a 
 proper professional school, where the question is not re- 
 specting academic prizes, or general accomplishment, but 
 success and usefulness in the career of life. 
 
21 
 
 But, ill the second place, how does the American Normal 
 School differ from Normal Schools in other countries f 
 
 The general object of the European ISTormal School may, 
 it seems to me, be stated thus : to take young men or boys of 
 the lower classes and of very moderate previous attainments, 
 and, by a course of appropriate exercises, to drill them into a 
 preparation for conducting, according to a prescribed rou- 
 tine, schools for the limited education of these lower classes, 
 great pains being taken to inculcate the spirit, principles, 
 and habits suitable to the humble but very useful station 
 which they are to occupy. In this station they are gen- 
 erally expected, without essential change or hope of change, 
 to continue, repeating the beaten round, through life ; and 
 appointments to particular places usually enianate from the 
 same authority that sustains the Normal Schools. The 
 pupil in one of these schools is an apprentice to the State 
 or to the Society which will afterward, if his course is sat- 
 isfactory — if he is faithful in performing the work set before 
 him, and does not insist upon thinking unduly for himself — 
 furnish him with employment. This employment is neither 
 very lucrative nor very honorable, yet in both these respects 
 is an advance upon the position which otherwise he would 
 probably have occupied. 
 
 When we look at our own Normal Schools, how strikingly 
 diverse, in many particulars, is the view presented ! What 
 a difierence in respect to general activity of mind, inde- 
 pendence of thought, amount of varied information, aspira- 
 tions in life ! The pupils are from no particular grades in 
 society, and are least of all from those families which would 
 be accounted lowest in social position. Many come to us, 
 we complain, with quire inadequate preliminary attain- 
 ments — yet inadequate, we must remember, according to 
 our standard, and not the European — while, on the other 
 
22 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 hand, there are tliose who enter our Normal Schools, after 
 the fullest and richest culture of excellent High Schools and 
 Academies, bringing with them an amount of knowledge — 
 I do not say of mere professional discipline — far superior 
 to that which most of the graduates of European Normal 
 Schools carry away with them. 
 
 In respect to plans for life, how much less of uniformity 
 in our schools ! The students are proposing to teach, some 
 in primary schools, others in grammar schools, and others 
 yet in high schools or academies ; and they will go forth, not 
 to occupy stations designed for them by those who have had 
 charge of their education, but either to make places for them- 
 selves, or to obtain them from Educational Boards or Com- 
 mittees having no connection with the school of their train- 
 ing, not recognizing, it may be, the diploma of the school as 
 of any validity, and sometimes even subjecting its possessor 
 to an examination of extraordinary severity, as if for tlie 
 express purpose of testing the diploma. 
 
 Even upon the simple entrance of one of our Normal 
 Schools, how strange is the scene to a Eu'ropean eye ! The 
 seats are chiefly — in some schools wholly — occupied by 
 women, that sex which, upon the continent of Europe, is 
 almost entirely excluded, so far as formal provision is made, 
 from that work which is its great birthright, the work of 
 education ; and even in the British Isles, is only admitted 
 to a small participation in it. Recent statistics of the State 
 Normal Schools, in the Eastern and Middle States, give the 
 following results. In the State Normal Schools of 
 
 Massachusetts 77 Males 875 Females 
 
 Ehode Island 25 " 75 
 
 Connecticut 84 " 202 " 
 
 New York 94 " 198 " 
 
 New Jersey 81 '♦ 87 ** 
 
 311 937 
 
28 
 
 The summary presents the extraordinary proportion of 
 937 females to 311 males, or more than three to one. And 
 this proportion would be rendered still more dispropor- 
 tionate if we should add the number of pupils in the City 
 Normal Schools of Boston and Philadelphia, to which only 
 females are admitted. 
 
 To illustrate the corresponding movement in our com- 
 munity with respect to the employment of female teachers, 
 it may be sufficient to compare the statistics of the Massa- 
 chusetts public schools, as they appear with an intervening 
 period of twenty-one years. In the year 1836-7, there were 
 employed in the public scliools of Massachusetts (counting 
 the teachers of summer and of winter schools separately, as 
 the summary was then n)ade out, ahd omitting eleven of 
 the smaller towns which failed to report) 2,370 male teach- 
 ers, and 3,591 female teachers. Of the latter, however, 
 only 856 were employed in the winter, and. of these 119 
 were in the city of Boston. In the year 1857-8, there were 
 employed (counting the number as before) 1,981 male teach- 
 ers, showing a decrease of 389, and 7,992 female teachers, 
 showing an increase of 4,401, or the number more than 
 doubled. And whereas before only 856 female teachers 
 were employed in the winter, now 3,482 were employed, or 
 more than four times the tirst number. The propriety of 
 this change, which is not at all conlined to Massachusetts, 
 and which I believe to be heralding a still greater change 
 fraught with blessing to mankind, 1 have no time now to 
 argue. 
 
 Nor have I time to show how, as it seems to me, the prev- 
 alent misapprehensions in the community with respect to 
 Normal Scliools, and the chief mistakes or imperfections in 
 their management, have arisen mainly from a failure to con- 
 sider or to appreciate the essential distinction between the 
 
24 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 formal and other Schools, or the important differences be- 
 tween the American and the European Normal School.* 
 
 '"' May I be permitted to add an extract from the Semi-annual Report made 
 July 22, 1858, to the Board of Visitors for the State Normal School at Salem, 
 Mass. ? 
 
 " In our daily exercises, we have endeavored to keep constantly in view the 
 peculiar object of the Normal School, as presented in the Address delivered 
 at the inauguration of our institution. I have regretted that those peculiar 
 features of our school, having reference to this object, which are so prominent 
 in our daily work, should have so little prominence in our public examina- 
 tions. It seems to me worthy of consideration, whether it would not be 
 practicable so to modify our examinations that they should more fully repre- 
 sent the distinctive character of the school, and show more adequately not 
 only what progress its pupils have made in the dilferent branches of science, 
 what general facility of communication they have acquired, and what opin- 
 ions they have formed respecting education and school methods, but also the 
 still more direct practical preparation which they have made toward their 
 specitic work of teaching others what they themselves know. If the time which 
 I may be permitted to occupy in this crowded afternoon were not restricted 
 to such narrow limits, I should be tempted to go beyond this mere sugges- 
 tion, and to endeavor to show, though certainly. Gentlemen of the Board, not 
 for your sakes, how very peculiar is the appropriate work of the Normal 
 School, and what advantages it possesses for the accomplishment of this, its 
 own work, above other institutions, however high may be their reputation 
 and great their excellence in their own wide spheres, however liberally they 
 may be endowe;! or supported, and however able and eminent may be their 
 teachers. 
 
 '• The Normal School does not present itself as a competitor with other 
 schools, either for public pq,tronage or for the attendanee of pupils. It would 
 not divert to itself the least portion of the support and favor which, in this 
 enlightened community, are so wisely bestowed upon other schools. It ^vould 
 not say to any students, ' Come to us, rather than go to those schools ;' 
 but, on the contrary, ' Go to those schools if you can, and avail yourselves 
 as fully as possible of their rich advantages ; and then, when you have thor- 
 oughly completed their courses of study and acquired maturity and discipline 
 Gf mind, if you wish to become teacliers, come to us, and engage for our brief 
 term, with the aid and companionship of others having the same end in view, 
 or already in the work, in the special study of the philosophy and art of 
 teaching, and in practical exercises tending to an immediate preparation for 
 this noble work. The larger stores of knowledge you have acquired before 
 you come to us, the better you will appreciate and improve the advantages 
 and opportunities which you will here find.' Allow me to add the remark, 
 that the aims and sphere of the Normal School have been sometimes misun- 
 derstood from the very cffirts which it has been obliged to make, to supply 
 4he want of an adequate preliminary training in many who have entered its 
 classes." 
 
25 
 
 Keeping this distinction and these differences in view, let 
 us inquire, thirdly, What should he the regular course of study 
 in an American Normal School f 
 
 It seems obvious that any course of professional training 
 which is not merely mechanical or empirical, must have for 
 its basis a thorough consideration of the principles of the 
 profession, of its philosophy, and that this should underlie 
 and give form to all the attention which may be paid to 
 practical methods. Methods must be continually changing 
 according as circumstances change ; and these change more 
 or less each successive day. The particular course which was 
 glory day before yesterday, and wisdom yesterday, may be 
 folly to-day, while it will be ruin to-morrow. The path of 
 existence was designed to be an onward one, and the steps 
 of no one day can be repeated the next if progress is to be 
 made. But principles are in their nature eternal, and it is 
 their office to sustain and guide amid all the vicissitudes 
 of circumstance, condition, event, fortune. They are the 
 changeless stars that shine over us to direct, amid all the 
 tossings of the waves, the variations of wind and current, 
 the agitations and wanderings of our frail barks. If prop- 
 erly observed, they secure each right end, just as the vitality 
 of the tree, amid all the alternations of sunshine and storm, 
 with all the varieties of soil and climate, in the forest or the 
 open field, on the mountain or the plain, makes of the acorn 
 an oak, and only an oak. 
 
 In most professional schools, the fundamental importance 
 of the study of the principles upon which the profession is 
 based has been recognized and practically regarded. No 
 one questions that the prime objects of attention in a med- 
 ical school should be the principles of medicine ; in a law 
 school, of lav/ ; and in a theological seminary, of theology. 
 Why has it not been equally seen that in a Normal School, for 
 
 2 
 
26 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 the training of educators, the prime subject of study should 
 be the principles of Education, and that the most earnest 
 effort of the student should be directed, not to the solution 
 of a miscellaneous question in Mr. Blank's Arithmetic, but 
 to the answer for himself, or herself, of such questions as 
 these, "What is Education?" " What does it comprise?" 
 " What are its true ends, its great laws, its essential means ?" 
 '' What are the distinctive properties of the only two sub- 
 jects of education, vitalized matter and mind ?" " What 
 are the characteristics of the human body, its proper offices, 
 its wants, its capacities, its laws of development, health, 
 strength, and activity ?" " What is the nature of mind, its 
 end in creation, its destiny, its susceptibilities and pow- 
 ers?" "What are the special nature and design of each 
 faculty of the mind, its capabilities, its limits, its uses, its 
 dangers, its methods of action, its laws of awakening, un- 
 folding, growth, health, and disease, its need and reward of 
 culture, and the best methods of this culture ?" " What 
 are the motive principles of man, his sensibilities, desires, 
 affections, passions ?" " What is the nature and intent of 
 each, its normal and abnormal action, its sanity and insanity, 
 its relations to virtue, intelligence, and happiness ?" "How 
 can the educator avail himself of each, so as to secure the 
 desired result ?" " With what skillful hand can he touch 
 each chord, so as to bring forth only melody and harmony ?" 
 " And then the Will, what is this mysterious agent, or es- 
 sence of agency ?" " Is it self-determined, or determined 
 from without?" "How can it be rightly stimulated, re- 
 pressed, governed, and taught to govern itself ?" " Tiie 
 Conscience, what is this, and why was it given to us ?" 
 " How far, and how can it be educated ?" "Is it a sure or 
 an erring guide ?" " In what sense is it the vicegerent of 
 God ?" " How can it be secured in its rightful authority ?" 
 
27 
 
 " Wlieii dethroned, how can it be restored to its proper seat 
 and scepter?" " Who constitute the agents of education, 
 and what is the proper sphere, office, and responsibility of 
 each — of the pupil himself, the parent, the scliool-teacher, 
 the school committee, the clergyman, the community ?" 
 ''How far must all education be essentially self-education?'' 
 " How various and extensive are educational influences ?" 
 "What are the best institutions for education, and what 
 methods are most in harmony with its great principles?" 
 
 With the -consideration of such questions — with this study 
 of the philosophy and art of education, including, as they 
 obviously do, physiology and hygiene, mental and moral 
 philosophy, and the principles of school legislation, organ- 
 ization, and government, may be naturally connected some 
 attention to the instructive and encouraging history of 
 education. 
 
 But the deveh^pment and growth of the mind are insep- 
 arably connected with the acquisition of knowledge. The 
 educator must be also an instructor. Hence he should cer- 
 tainly know the principles and best methods of instruction 
 in all those branches of learning which he may be called to 
 teach ; principles first, and then methods as the application 
 of principles. It follows, that the regular course of study 
 in our Normal Schools should include, as its second great 
 department, the thorough consideration of these principles 
 and methods of instruction. But the question may arise, 
 "With reference to what branches of learning or depart- 
 ments of teaching ?" With reference to all those, cer- 
 tainly, that belong to the common school. And these in- 
 clude the elements of most branches of learning. Arith- 
 metic contains the elements of mathematics ; geography, 
 of the natural sciences ; and reading and grammar, of lan- 
 guage and literature. It is familiar to teachers, that the 
 
28 A^IERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 great difficulty in instruction lies in teaching the elements. 
 Here is the sharpest test of didactic pliilosophy and skill. 
 The elements well taught, the further work of the teacher, 
 so far as modes of instruction are concerned, is compara- 
 tively easy. Hence it will be practically found that the 
 principles and methods of common-school instruction will 
 substantially cover nearly the whole ground of the princi- 
 ples and methods of instruction in general. He w^ho can 
 teach scientifically and adroitly a primary school, may be 
 trusted, if his literary attainments are sufficient, in any de- 
 partment of instruction up to the university. I would not, 
 however, exclude from the Normal School special attention 
 to the particular principles and methods of so-called higher 
 instruction. 
 
 But the educator requires not only a theoretical, but a 
 practical preparation for his woik. To acquaintance with 
 principles and methods, he needs to add skill, tact, and fa- 
 cility in their use and ap})licati(>n. By w^hat practical 
 exercises these may be best acquired, we are to be informed 
 hereafter; and it does not seem befitting, especially with 
 my sand so far run out, that I should anticipate the dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 We have now very briefly considered what seem to me 
 to be the three great and essential departments in the reg- 
 ular course of study appropriate to the American ]N'ormal 
 School, viz. : 
 
 I. The philosophy, history, and art of Education, physical, 
 intellectual, and moral. 
 
 H. The principles and best methods of instruction in the 
 various branches of common learning. 
 
 HI. Exercises for the illustration and application of these 
 principles and methods, and for imparting practical famil- 
 iarity with the teacher's work. 
 
29 
 
 It does not seem to me to require an argument that, in 
 the institution and prosecution of this course, we should 
 have higher aims, freer thought, and a deeper philosophy 
 than have been usual in the European Normal Schools. 
 Upon our own schools I will not here remark, except simply 
 that they differ so greatly in plan, purpose, and circum- 
 stance from those in Europe, that we must beware of taking 
 these as our models. The N"ormal School problem in this 
 country is a far higher and greater one than that in Europe 
 has been ; and the necessity is laid upon us, choose it or 
 not as we may, of working out this problem for ourselves. 
 What hopes hang on its right solution ! 
 
 Let us proceed to a fourth inquiry. What incidental or 
 svhsidiary courses of study may he jprojperly introduced into 
 our Normal Schools ? 
 
 By " incidental or subsidiary courses," I mean those 
 which are not strictly professional, which do not character- 
 ize the ISTormal School as such, but are common to this 
 with other institutions of good learning. These courses in a 
 Normal School have, mainly, three objects : 
 
 1. To supply defects in the preparation for admission. 
 
 2. To continue that general culture which ought not to be 
 neglected even in a course of professional study. 
 
 3. To give an acquaintance with the higher branches of 
 school learning. 
 
 So far as the first object has been contemplated — thus far 
 I acknowledge a very important and indispensable object — 
 it seems to me that there is for our Normal Schools, to bor- 
 row the words of the Apostle, ''a more excellent way;" 
 and that is, to raise the standard of admission, so that the 
 pupils shall bring with them the attainments requisite for 
 their entering at once, efficiently and successfully, upon a 
 course of professional discipline. This is only the common 
 
30 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 demand of other professional schools. Why should it not 
 be of the Normal School ? Why should this be obliged to 
 descend from its peculiar work, so great and high, to per- 
 form the work of other schools, or to supply their short- 
 comings? Ought it not, in its noble upbuilding, to adopt 
 the words of the rebuilder of the walls of Jerusalem, '' I am 
 doing a great work, so that I can not come down ?" Is it 
 too much to require, at the least, that the candidates for 
 admission should be already thoroughly acquainted with 
 the branches of common-school study, so that they may be 
 fully prepared to enter at once upon a consideration of the 
 principles and best methods of teaching these branches ? 
 
 But it may be asked, " If in default of candidates properly 
 prepared, it is deemed expedient for the present to admit 
 those who are only partially fitted, what shall be done ? 
 Shall there not be an attempt to supply their defects ?" 
 Yes, by all means. " And in what way ?" If the defects 
 in a particular branch are not serious, they may be supplied, 
 by a little extra work, in the regular course of studying the 
 principles and methods of instruction in that branch ; for 
 this course will necessarily bring to view, and from the best 
 point of view, the essential elements and leading particulars 
 of the branch. If the defects are quite considerable, they 
 should be supplied, as it seems to me, not by a review in 
 the regular course, to which all are subjected, but by spe- 
 cial exercises for those who are deficient, adapted to the 
 several degrees of their deficiency. Many excellent schol- 
 ars have undoubtedly been prevented from entering our 
 Normal Schools by the impression that much of the time 
 is devoted, for the sake of poorer scholars, to exercises 
 which they themselves do not need. Haise the standard of 
 admission to our Normal Schools, and higher intellects and 
 richer attainments will be attracted to them. Let a low 
 
31 
 
 standard be kept, and we must not be disappointed to find 
 those presenting themselves to whom such a standard is 
 attractive. 
 
 In respect to incidental exercises for the second object, 
 the continuance of that general culture which ought not to 
 be neglected even in a course of professional study, we are 
 doubtless so fully agreed in general sentiment that this 
 point may be passed without further remark. 
 
 What shall we say in respect to those of the third class, 
 those which have for their object to give an acquaintance 
 with the higher branches of school study ? In respect to 
 these higher branches, it may be remarked, that attention 
 to them is, to a considerable extent, involved in the proper 
 prosecution of the Regular Normal Course. The science of 
 Education covers, as its bases. Physiology and Mental and 
 Moral Philosophy — the Philosophy- of Reasoning, of Ex- 
 pression, and of Government being of course included. A 
 thorough investigation of the principles and methods of 
 teaching Arithmetic involves, of necessity, from the marvel- 
 ous powers and world-wide applications of number, some 
 attention to Algebra, Geometry, Mechanics, and the laws 
 and forms of pecuniary transactions. Into what department 
 of physical science does not Geography conduct us, I do not 
 say for mere illustration, but for essential or important ex- 
 planation? And what demands are made upon him who, 
 in the adequate teaching of reading and grammar, would 
 attempt to unfold the powers and riches of our inappreci- 
 able language and literature ! 
 
 But shall the higher branches of study be introduced into 
 our Normal Schools farther than a liberal and truly scien- 
 tific preparation for the work of common-school instruction 
 requires? If they are so introduced, our schools should 
 have larger corps of teachers and more ample support than 
 
32 AMERICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 most of them now have. If they are not so introduced, we 
 may expect in the future, as we have observed in the past, 
 the following consequences. Those who have been pro- 
 fessionally educated for the worl?: of teaching, who have 
 made it a study, a science, will, for the most part, be con- 
 fined to what are regarded as the lower, or as only medium 
 positions in the work ; while the highest places, the fnost in- 
 fluential and the most lucrative, will be cliiefly occupied by 
 those who, however well educated in other respects, have 
 never made the science of teaching a distinct subject of 
 study, who have never given an hour to serious thought upon 
 the principles of education ; nay, who perhaps even scout 
 the idea that any professional training is needed by the 
 teacher. The evils of such a state of things I need not at- 
 tempt to describe ; of so unnatural a divorce between edu- 
 cational science and educational influence, between didactic 
 skill and high literary attainment, between professional 
 preparation for the work of teaching and favorable position 
 in the work. That for this separation there should be sub- 
 stituted the closest union, seems to me evident, as if written 
 with sunbeams ; how this union can be best effected, may 
 not be equally plain. So far as young men are concerned, 
 there are two methods, which ought perhaps both to be at- 
 tempted ; the first, the extension of the courses of higher 
 study in our Normal Schools; the second, the introduction 
 of a thorough and efticient course of didactics, theoretical 
 and prac|ical, into our college curriculum. So far as young 
 women are concerned, we seem to be shut up to the first of 
 these methods ; and while I would have the I^ormal Schools 
 for them dev^oted not less, but more than they now are, to the 
 cause of primary education, I deem it of vital importance 
 (the expression does not exaggerate my conviction) that 
 there should be in connection with these schools scientitic 
 
33 
 
 and literary advantages for oar talented, studious, and enter- 
 prising young ladies akin to those which have been pro- 
 vided for their brothers, often at woman's expense, in the 
 numerous colleges of our country.* 
 
 « The importance of the subject must be my apology for adding extracts 
 from two Semi-annual Reports to the Board of Visitors for the State Normal 
 School at Salem, Mass. : 
 
 ' ' The great and increasing demand for female teachers of superior attain- 
 ment to take positions in High Schools, and other institutions of like grade, 
 renders it eminently desirable that those who may be able and prepared to do 
 this, should pursue a regular advanced course, designed to meet the requisi- 
 tions of the law in respect to the teachers of our public High Schools. Ladies 
 are already beginning to be employed in these schools, not merely as assist- 
 ants, but as principals ; and that, not only in separate schools for girls, but even 
 in those for both sexes. And a case has lately come to my knowledge where 
 a young lady, a graduate of one of our own Normal Schools, was engaged as 
 an assistant in the flourishing High School of one of our large towns, with 
 the understanding that she should teach the Greek and Latin, and fit young 
 men for college. 
 
 " Indeed, I observe that our legislators are contemplating an enlargement in 
 this direction of the sphere of female instruction. Strange and almost incred- 
 ible as it may appear, until as recently as the year 1827, there was no recogni- 
 tion whatever of female teachers in the statutes of the Commonwealth. The 
 school -law of 1789, which was previously in force, read thus : ' Every town 
 or district within tliis Commonwealth, containing fifty families or household- 
 ers, sliall be provided with a schoolmaster or schoolmasters, of good morals, to 
 teach children to read and write, and to instruct them in the English lan- 
 guage, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent behavior, for such 
 term of time as shall be equivalent to six months for one school in each 
 year.' etc. The law of March 10th, 1827, upon which our present scliool sys- 
 tem is based, reads thus : ' Each town or district within this Commonwealth, 
 containing fifty families or householders, shall be provided with a teacher or 
 teachei's, of good morals, to instruct children in orthography, reading, writ- 
 ing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and good behavior, for such 
 term of time as shall be equivalent to six months for one school in each 
 year,' etc. Instead of the masculine 'schoolmaster or schoolmasters,' ex- 
 chiding females from the instruction of the schools required by law, we have 
 now those words of the common gender, ' teacher or teachers, ' opening the 
 door of the school-house, for the common school, as wide to the woman as to 
 the man. For tlie numbers that are entering in — increasing from year to 
 year — and their success, I need only refer to the Annual Reports of one oi 
 your own Board, and the accompanying documents. Still, this same law of 
 1827, a few lines below, says that the high school must have * a master of good 
 morals,' etc. A woman might keep a common school, but it was not yet 
 deemed admissible that a high school should be committed to female hands. 
 
 2* 
 
34: AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 We pass to our fifth and last inquiry : What should he 
 the influence of the American Normal School upon tht char- 
 acter of its pupils f I have left its greatest work to be men- 
 tioned last ; for the great question, after all, is not, " Where 
 has the teacher been educated ?" " What has he studied ?" 
 or ** What does he know ?" but ^* What is he?" or, pardon me 
 if my own special relations, and my views of the distinctive 
 ofiice of each sex in the elevation of humanity, incline me 
 to change the pronoun, " What is she ?" " What is her 
 spirit? Her love for the work? Her love for those com- 
 mitted to her charge ? Her ideal of excellence for herself 
 and for her pupils ? Her zeal and energy in making this 
 
 But so much progress in public sentiment and school usages has been since 
 made, that in the revision of the section relating to high schools, May 22, 
 1857, wherever the word ' master' had previously occurred, Wiis now substi- 
 tuted * teacher or teachers.' ' The first class of the fifth section of the twen- 
 ty-third chapter of the Revised Statutes is hereby so amended as that the 
 teacher or teacliers of the schools, required to be kept by said clause, shall be 
 competent to give instruction,' etc. And yet the requisitions are now much 
 higher than before. What is the significance of this change made by the 
 Legislature of that year, except to express their approbation of tlie gradual 
 but sure movement by which instruction in our high as well as common 
 schools is passing, to so great an extent, into the hands of those whose espe- 
 cial vocation and profession seems to be that of education ?" — Eeport, Feb. 9, 
 1859. 
 
 *' We have been happy to welcome, as members of our advanced class, ten 
 who have commenced a regular course of higher study in direct preparation 
 for instruction in our High Schools and Academies. No one, it seems to me^ 
 who has watched carefully the educational signs of the times, in the con- 
 stantly increasing number of female teachers, and the no less constantly en- 
 larging sphere of female instruction, can doubt the wisdom, on the part of 
 our young ladies, of engaging in such a preparation ; or the expediency, on 
 the part of the Commonwealth, of making the fullest provision, even at an 
 extra expense, and by the employment of an extra number of teachers, in at 
 least one, if not all, of our Normal Schools, for such a class of students. And 
 is not this, permit me to ask, a worthy object of individual bounty, not only 
 from women, but from men of ample means ? If but a tithe of the money 
 which woman has contributed, often from the hardest earnings, for the edu- 
 cation of the other sex, were but returned for the benefit of woman, there 
 would be no scantiness of resources for the very highest female education." 
 —Report, July 28, 1859. 
 
PKOF. CROSBY S PAPEK. 
 
 35 
 
 ideal real ? With the noblest ends in view, does she abound 
 in means and resources for securing those ends ? Is she in- 
 genious, inventive, prompt, resolute, patient, persevering? 
 In all her habits and expressions of character, is she fitted 
 to be a model to her pupils ? Are her conscience and affec- 
 tions true and living ? Does she really live, while in the 
 world, above it, deriving wisdom, strength, impulse, sup- 
 port, peace, and joy from higher than earthly sources?" 
 
 Highly as I appreciate the good which our Normal Schools 
 have accomplished by disciplining and furnishing the intel- 
 lect of their pupils, I still believe that they have accom- 
 plished yet more through their influence upon character, by 
 awaking, developing, and strengthening the true spirit of 
 the teacher's work ; by joining with broader views, loftier, 
 farther reaching, purer aspirations ; by giving greater depth 
 and fixedness to principles ; by bringing conscience to bear 
 alike upon the grand aims and the minute details of the 
 teacher's vocation ; by kindling in the heart a more glowing 
 affection for the young ; by all those various and commin- 
 gled influences of example and precept, freedom and sys- 
 tem, meditation and conference, which form the atmosphere 
 of the Normal School ; by touching the lips with a live coal 
 from the altar of God. 
 
 May the Normal School continue and make perfect this 
 beneficent, sublime, heavenly work, illustrating in the char- 
 acters which it forms, those lines of the poet : 
 
 ' ' The clear soul in his earnest eyes 
 Looks through and through all plated lies ; 
 Time shall not rob him of his youth, 
 
 Nor narrow his large sympathies : 
 He is not true, he is a truth, 
 
 And such a truth as never dies. 
 No shadow simulating life, 
 
 But pulses warm with human nature, 
 
 In a soul of godlike stature ; 
 
36 AMERICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 Heart and brain all rich and rife 
 
 With noble instincts ; strong to meet 
 Time calmly, in his purposed place ; 
 
 Sound through and through, and all complete. 
 Who knows his nature, feels his right, 
 And toiling, toils for his delight ; 
 Not as slaves toil : where'er he goes, 
 The desert blossoms with the rose. 
 
 The world works with him ; all men see 
 Some part of them fulfilled in him ; 
 His memory never shall grow dim ; 
 
 He holds the heaven and earth in fee, 
 Not' following that, fulfilling this, 
 He is immortal, for he is !" 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 The reading of Prof. Crosby's paper being conchided, the dis- 
 cussion of the same was in order. 
 
 Hon. Geo. B. Emerson, of Boston, said : I wish to utter a sin- 
 gle word in regard to one point presented, in which I do not know 
 but the gentleman who presented the admirable paper to which we 
 have listened, referred to myself. 
 
 I believe, sir, we are not to look to the Old World for models of 
 improvement in these schools. When the question first came up in 
 Massachusetts as to what a Normal School should be. we all had 
 our eyes on the Normal Schools of Prussia ; for, as they had been 
 longer established, we supposed we could learn from them. When 
 I visited Prussia three years ago, I visited one and one only, in 
 Berlin. I was told it was a good, fair average of the schools. I 
 spent a week in examining it, and I never was more surprised ; I 
 confess, I never was more gratified than I was then, to find that 
 there was not one single principle in which the schools of Massa- 
 chusetts were not above them. 
 
 The gentleman referred in his paper to the kind of persons called 
 to teach there ; and he hj^s not used too strong language. The 
 young men who taught there were of such a character, that if they 
 had presented themselves for examination to enter one of our Nor- 
 mal Schools, they would have been told to go to the plow or to the 
 anviil, to do what God had fitted them to do. 
 
 Then as to the course and object of the schools, it seemed as if 
 the object of the course were rather to keep down the people than 
 to keep them up. They were schools sustained by a ruler who 
 
REMARKS OF DR. EMERSON MR. FIELD. 37 
 
 dreaded too much light, and for a cla«s which doe^ not bt^long to 
 this couritry. There is no class of free people in this country so 
 low as those for whom the Normal Schools of Prussia are designed. 
 
 But in speaking of the character of the teaching that 1 saw, I 
 speak only of it in the Normal School ; for in some of thfe gymnasia 
 I saw such a course of training as it would be of great advantage to 
 the teachers of th-s country to be able to witness. 
 
 We must not look elsewhere for the modes of raising our own 
 Normal Schools. How can we imagine that we have to look else- 
 where, after having listened to the words of wise experience which we 
 have just heard ? If such men as he are willing to take charge of them, 
 if such lessons of wisdom come from them, let us look at home, let us 
 look at the instructions of the Bible and learn how immortal crea- 
 tures should be educated in the spirit of Christ. We must not look, 
 we need not look anywhere else. The work is before us ; we must 
 do it ourselves. (Applause.) 
 
 Hon. Richard S. Field, of Princeton, President of the Board 
 of Trustees of the N. J. State Normal School, addressed the meet- 
 ing and welcomed the Association to the State of New Jersey, and 
 inv ted the members to spend Friday in visiting the literary institu- 
 tions of Princeton, and the battle-ground, and he generously proffer- 
 ed the hospitalities of his own house. 
 
 Rev. Dr. McJilton, of Baltimore, was satisfied that the people 
 of our own country could think best for Americans, and could lay 
 out for themselves a course of study which should be restricted and 
 governed by the peculiarities of no other people on earth. But 
 while this is the case, we must be exceedingly careful that our 
 course is not one of experiments, which would be one of the most 
 unhappy results ; for we >hould become proficient in nothing. What 
 we should do is to aim at certain points and confine our efforts to 
 them, without diverging to experiments too much. The reason why 
 Normal Schools have changed their character is, 1 think, because 
 we have not sufficiently understood their true position. That they 
 are necessary, is so evident as to need no argument ; it is impossi- 
 ble that education shall take its proper position without the aid of 
 Normal Schools ; it is as impossible that the profession of teaching 
 should succeed without training, as that the profession of medicine 
 or divinity should do so. To teach the teacher is necessary, and 
 to teach him how to teach is a matter of absolute necessity. 
 
38 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 Prof. John S. Hart, of Philadelphia, approved the sentiments 
 and principles presented by Prof. Chosby. He thought it very im- 
 portant that they should, in the outset, get a clear idea of what a 
 Normal School is. The men who are engaged in this great work 
 should have their opinions well settled as to the theory of a Normal 
 School ; and the paper presented is well adapted to settle that 
 theory, and to bring our minds to definite conclusions on the 
 subject. 
 
 This theoretical idea is, in my opinion, more important than many 
 practical subjects which may come before us. The practical sub- 
 jects are important in themselves, but we must have a correct theory 
 at the bottom, if we are to reach ultimate success. But there is a 
 difficulty, which is, that there is nothing with which we can com- 
 pare a Normal School. That is the only point on which I differ 
 with the gentleman who presented the paper. We commonly divide 
 schools into scientific and professional; and we have different 
 classes of these. Now, if a Normal School must be brought under 
 either of these categories, it must be a professional school ; and yet 
 it differs, in some important points, from any other. For instance, 
 in a medical school, lectures are given in sciences, and in that 
 respect it is much like a school of philosophy, or philology, or any 
 other science. In a medical school the students are not trained to 
 give instruction in medicine ; in -a Normal School we are called 
 upon, not to train pupils in science so much as to show them how to 
 teach others. To make the comparison complete between a Normal 
 School and a medical school, the professors in a medical school 
 should train their students to make other doctors. The idea of a 
 N-rmal School does, in a certain • sense, overshadow all other 
 schools, because it trains teachers how to teach every branch. 1 
 have seen not a few learned men, even in our colleges, who need to 
 go through this normal process as much as those who teach addition 
 or multiplication. This necessity goes through the whole course, 
 so that a man needs to be trained how^ to teach the differential cal- 
 culus as much as to teach the alphabet. 
 
 Adjourned. 
 
REMARKS OF DR. EMERSON. 39 
 
 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 
 After the reading of the Constitution, the names of the members 
 in attendance were enrolled, numbering seventy-one ; and fifty-four 
 persons present, especially interested in education as teachers, or 
 otherwise, were voted in as honorary or corresponding members. 
 
 DISCUSSION RESUMED. 
 
 Dr. Geo. B. Emerson then resumed his remarks with reference 
 to the Normal Schools of Prussia, repeating that they were ii»tended 
 for a class of persons below any in the free States of this country. 
 It is not proper to draw any inference from them intended for a 
 class that does not exist. 
 
 But in the gymnasia the teachers go in and hold communication 
 with the understanding of their pupils for three hours together, hav- 
 ing complete possession of all that is to be taught from beginning 
 to end. There were no exceptions in the elements of the learned 
 languages ; but in the classes in the higher authors, text-books were 
 used. In those schools I saw specimens of teaching the very ele- 
 ments that I should like to make known familiarly to all the teachers 
 in all the Normal Schools in the country. A man highly gifted, 
 thoroughly educated, fitted to be the head of a university, going in 
 day after day, and teaching little children the first lessons irj their 
 alphabet. I know from what I have seen in the gymnasia of Berlin, 
 and Dresden, and Leipsic, that the teaching is as good as it can be ; 
 but the teaching for such schools as are imagined to correspond to 
 our Normal Schools, is not to be compared with ours. We have an 
 infinitely higher material out of which to make the teacher. The 
 great difference between the schools of Germany, France, Switzer- 
 land, Sweden and Norway and those of ours is, that in all those 
 countries they have not discovered the fact that woman is the God- 
 appointed teacher. A gentleman was sent here from Sweden, a lew 
 years ago, to examine the schools in this country, to see if he could 
 not find something to carry back to his own country. He went with 
 me to visit the schools at West Newton ; and after he had seen a 
 large class of young ladies- recite in different studies, and heard 
 them examine each other, after having spent three hours there, he 
 said: "This is worth coming across the Atlantic for. We can now 
 provide for the poor scholars in the mountain districts of Sweden 
 and Norway. There are many capable women there, who can be 
 
40 AMEBIC AN NOIiMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 easily rendered suitable teachers. This will be the means of my 
 suggesting to my King the propriety of filling those schools with 
 female teachers." 
 
 in traveling across Switzerland, I was for several hours one day 
 in company with a very intelligent Swiss, who was much interested 
 in education. We passed by a school-house and saw an exceedingly 
 stupid-looking man, who appeared as though he might work ten or 
 twelve hours a day at the plow, and the land be all the better for it. 
 But he did not look as if he could teach. I asked him if that was a 
 sample of their teaching, Yes, said he. We passed, not long 
 after, a field where there were many intelligent-looking females at 
 work. I suggested to him that in my country those females would 
 be in the schools, and the man at the plow. 
 
 Mr. Greenleaf, of Brooklyn, inquired where the teachers in the 
 gymnasia acquired their skill. 
 
 Mr. Emerson said the gymnasia had been established many 
 years, and that in no part of the world had so much attention been 
 given to the best methods of teaching, as in Germany. He did not 
 know that they had any special instruction in the art of teaching, 
 except that which comes from a course of instruction during ten 
 yea's, where teachers have been selected who know how to teach 
 perfectly well, 'i'he n.ost beautiful teaching that I saw in Germany 
 was by one who had had a ten years' course in the gymnasia, where 
 all the teaching there was as good as possible, who went to the 
 Uhiversity afterward, but where he did not learn anything in the 
 art of teaching; and after he left the university, he took a class of 
 forty little boys who did not know their alphabet. 1 do not know- 
 that there was any special training in the art of teaching in the 
 gymnasia ; but if all teachers were as good as those in the gymnasia, 
 there would be no need of Normal Schools. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Dickinson, Principal of the Normal School at West- 
 field, Mass., said he had found some difficulty in the management 
 of Normal Schools. He supposed the primary idea of those who 
 established them was, that they should be confined to teaching 
 methods ; and it was taken for granted ihat the scholars would have 
 the mind and knowledge necessary for teachers. I do not know, 
 said he, but this theory is the correct one ; but practically we have 
 no such scholars present themselves for admission. They do not 
 have the knowledge and discipline necessary for teachers ; so that 
 
BEMAEKS OF MR. DICKINSON. 41 
 
 while the plan is founded upon a correct principle, the theory can 
 not be carried into practical effect. And, if they did have the right 
 principle and knowledge before they entered, there would be 
 scarcely any necessity for Normal Schools. For if they had pur- 
 sued the right discipline in obtaijiing the knowledge, there would be 
 suggested to them the best methods of teaching others. 
 
 I think we should elevate the standard for admission ; and it will 
 be necessary to settle what that standard shall be. Shall it be 
 scholarship, or physical appearance, or mental strength, or know- 
 ledge ? For if we confine the examination to the amount of know- 
 ledge they have, we may shut out some who, after a time, would 
 make the best teachers. Thus there is a practical difficulty in this 
 respect. 
 
 Another idea presented by the author of the paper was, that some 
 of those admitted, should not be required to go over the same course 
 as those who were less qualified. I would like to know if any 
 could be excused from passing over the elementary course. So far 
 as my experience goes, there is no scholar admitted who does not 
 have a nt-cessity for passing over the elementary course carefully 
 and thoroughly. As a general truth, they have neglected the ele- 
 mentary studies. Those in the seminary where 1 am, and who are 
 nearly ready to graduate, are most willing to take up the elementary 
 course, and to be drilled in the elements. 
 
 Another po'ut referred to was the effect of the normal instruction 
 on character. I fully agree, said he, that such instruction should be 
 given as to make every department of the nature strong. To do this 
 some radical change is necessary. There should be a longer course 
 in the schools, and none except those who have gone through it, 
 should receive the certificate of the institution. This may not be 
 practicable now, but as the system comes into favor we should look 
 to this end. 
 
 Prof. Phelps, of Trenton, said this association was organized for 
 the purpose of improving the character of our American Normal 
 Schools. That pre-supposes that they are defective, if you please, 
 that they are in their infancy, and that they demand to be improved. 
 It is one of the objects of this Association to secure this improve- 
 ment. 
 
 In the outset, we must know what we would have the Ameri- 
 can Normal Schools to be. If I understood the pith of the paper 
 
42 AMEKIGAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 that was read this morning, it was that one of the great objects of 
 the American Normal School is to build up a system pre-eminently 
 American; that is to say, a system which shall be in harmony with 
 the character and genius of the American people. 
 
 Another object, as was stated, was that of training up and send- 
 ing forth a succession of apostles, who shall go fortli and preach 
 this American idea in its purity, and carry it out practically in the 
 every-day life of the school. As one means of securmg this result, 
 our friend recommended that the American Normal School should 
 be less scholastic in its character, and more professional ; in other 
 words, that it should be as essentially a professional school, as a 
 medical, law, or theological school ; And it was suggested by our 
 friend Dr. Haut, of Philadelphia, that the comparison was not as 
 striking as it ought to be, that to place them on a level, there should 
 be institutions for teaching how to make doctors, and better ones 
 than we have ; how to make lawyers, and better ones. I conceive 
 that position is the true one. Then our Normal Schools demand 
 something more than we demand of other professional schools ; for 
 their true object is, to teach others how to teach. 
 
 Now the great question is, how is this result to be obtained ? in 
 what way are we best to teach others hnw to teach? 
 
 It was suggested by Prof Ckosby, that to obtain the true objects 
 of the Normal Schools we must raise the stand&rd of admission. 
 
 With all due respect to his experience, I must beg leave to differ 
 from him. If the standard had been raised in this institution as he 
 would have it, we should have had no pupils to instruct. Here are 
 the startling facts in the case, that by far the greater part of those 
 who go into our schools to teach are absolutely ignorant of the 
 principles of arithmetic, grammar, and geography. How are you 
 to teach them how to teach that of which they know nothing ? 
 Here a difficulty of immense dimensions is presented in the outset. 
 When all our common schools fail to make their pupils acquainted 
 with these principles, what can you do ? Will you refuse them 
 admittance whde they are thus ignorant, and while, at the same 
 time, all our schools, academies, and colleges fail to remove that 
 ignorance ? 
 
 But admitting that only the art of teaching how to teach should 
 be taught in the Normal School, I want to know how you are to 
 teach the best methods of teaching any one branch, but by teaching 
 
REMARKS OF MR. PHELrS. 43 
 
 your class in the same way, or in accordance with the same princi- 
 ples which they should apply in their school-rooms. It seecus to 
 nie that giving instruction in the elements of any science is one of 
 the hest ways to train teachers to teach that science. 
 
 But that is not all. The simple teachiug of arithmetic, grammar, 
 and geography is the least part of our teaching in common school> ; 
 and te.nching how to teach is the least important part of the tra ning 
 in Normal Schools. That teaching that does not regard the high 
 destiny of man is unworthy the attention of any community. It 
 seems to me that we cannot, at present, exclude the idea of giv- 
 ing elementary, direct, literary instruction in our Normal Schools. 
 I do not know how it may be in Massachusetts, but we will grant 
 that the people of that State are in advance of New Jersey, Penn- 
 sylvania, and New York, and therefore they are better prepared to 
 raise the standard of admission into the Normal Schools than we 
 are. But let me call attention to the fact that some Normal Schools 
 have died out. What was the reason ? Those which simply sail 
 under the name without the power must go out. 
 
 The paper of Prof Chosby was such as to justify us m drawing 
 many important inferences. First, the Normal School must be 
 conducted with direct reference to training up a class of teachers. 
 Therefore it can never be an appendage to a high school or a college. 
 These experiments have been tried so far as to justify us in believ- 
 ing that no such thing is practicable. The result of such an attempt 
 in New York is known by all to have been a failure. The attempt 
 was made in Kentucky to establish a Normal School in connection 
 with the University of the State. It did not survive two years. 
 Engraft your medical or law school upon the academy, and you will 
 do a more sensible thing than to engraft a Normal School upon an 
 institution of that kind. 
 
 We want to have definite ideas as to what a Normal School should 
 be it seems to me that it should be an institution in which every 
 exercise and every influence should be of such a character as to 
 make the best teachers that the ingenuity, that the means, that the 
 mind of man can produce. What is the work of the teacher? Is it 
 to make good accountants, or good business men, or to lay the founda- 
 tion for good lawyers and good doctors merely ? No, sir ; the work 
 of the teacher is to make men ; men able to comprehend the epoch 
 in which they live, men able to comprehend what their high destiny 
 
44 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 is, capable of acting their part on the theater of life as men should 
 act. After all our discussions we shall oidy make an approximation 
 to the true idea of a Normal School. I trust our future discus- 
 sions will tend more and more to develop the particular means, 
 and methods, and principles by the operation and application of 
 which the true idea of an American Normal School shall be wrought 
 out. 
 
 Prof. S. M. Hamill, of New Jersey, thought the idea expressed 
 by Cicero, docentes dicimus, was embodied in the true idea of 
 a Normal School, Teaching is one of the most difficult arts, and 
 he who can teach a child can teach an adult, with proper intellec- 
 tual and scholastic attainments. He thought there was apt to be 
 too much teaching. 
 
 Prof. J p. WicKERSHAM, of Pennsylvania, said he had listened 
 to the paper and the discussion upon it with interest; but there were 
 some questions which had not been solved to his satisfaction as yet ; 
 VIZ. : how much academical mstruction may the Normal Schools 
 give ; and on the other hand, how much professional instruction may 
 academies and colleges give? 'I'he limit has not yet been fixed. 
 It is impracticable to ijianage Normal Schools yet without giving 
 scholastic instruction ; and if, on the other hand, those instructed 
 in academies and colleges can teach well, there is no place for 
 Normal Schools. But I do not believe, said Mr W., that academies 
 or colleges have ever made teachers ; and 1 do not believe, though 
 their methods of training may be good, that they can make them. 
 Now and then a good teacher comes from them, but nature made 
 him, and not the academy or college. They tell us in Pennsylvania 
 that academies and colleges will furnish teacher-. They tell us so 
 in New Jersey, and, if I read the report right, they say so in 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 We have too few Normal Schools. We have 15,000 teachers in 
 Pennsylvania ; what can a few Normal Schools do toward preparing 
 them for their work 1 We must increase their number and extend 
 the course of study in them. 
 
 Rev. B. G. Northrop, Secretary of the Association, contended 
 that the theory of the Normal School should be right, notwithstand- 
 ing the admitted difficulty of fully reaching it in practice. Our 
 theory in education will shape and subordinate all the processes. 
 An erroneous theory will impair our whole system, and vitiate all 
 
REMARKS OF GEN. OLIYEK. 45 
 
 our methods and details. No point has come before us here more 
 fundamental, practical, and important than the question, What is the 
 primary and leading purpoise of the Normal School ? 
 
 Nor is it any valid objection that we do not yet work up to our 
 theory of advanced qualifications for admission. Who of us has 
 reached his own standard in moral or intellectual culture ? And yet 
 are not our attainments likely to be proportioned to the elevation of 
 our aims. Certainly if our standard is low, our practice will be 
 lower. In Massachusetts the standard for admission to our Normal 
 Schools has been steadily advancing, and the next five years, it is 
 confidently believed, will witness greater progress in this direction 
 than has yet been made in twenty years. 
 
 It is objected that in some States a high standard would exclude 
 all applicants. Then yield to the compulsion of necessity, till an 
 advanced public sentiment and increasing culture remove the diffi- 
 culty, and the earnest advocacy of the true theory of Normal Schools 
 will hasten the coming of that good time, while the opposite view 
 will prolong the evil. The Normal School should no longer be 
 regarded as in any degree a competitor of the high school, academy, 
 or college, and those who have completed the full course of the high 
 school or academy will be most interested and profited by the 
 special and professional learning of the Normal School. 
 
 The Prksident said : We differ in practice only, while we agree 
 in theory, and the diflference in practice is the result of the circum- 
 stances in which we are placed. 
 
 Gen. H. K. Olivkr said he was present at the examination of 
 the cadets at West Point, in 1847, and the results there illustrate 
 very well what the Normal School should aim at. At that time 
 one of the cade's was called out, his name being taken from the 
 roll placed in the hands of the examiners, and he was required 
 to take the command of the battalion and control its movements on 
 the field in the presence of his own commander and of the exam- 
 iners. Then another and another, to the number of half a dozen or 
 more, were thus called out, without previous notice, to take the 
 command. 
 
 These young men evinced a promptness and skill in command- 
 ing that proved them competent to have a company in their charge. 
 That kind ^f traming is what teachers need ; to be so qualified by 
 previous drilling as well as instruction, that they can take the com- 
 
4:6 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 mand of their corps of pupils and carry on the school with efficiency 
 and certainty of success. 
 
 Gen. O. concluded by expressing the opinion that every one who 
 aims to become a teacher must have an opportunity of. witnessing 
 good teaching as well as listening to lectures on methods. 
 
 Dr. McJiL I ON thought th. y had settled the question, that the 
 teacher must be taughc how to teach. To do this, he conceived 
 there must be proper mstrucion and practice combined. The 
 academy and college, he thought, could never supply the demand 
 for teachers. In the Normal School, he whom nature has fitted 
 for a teacher can have his powers properly developed and exer- 
 cised. 
 
 There is a great work to be done to prepare teachers for their 
 labor. He would have instruction in the branches to be taught 
 combined with special training for the work of teaching. The 
 elementary branches are of vast importance, and should be attended 
 to in the Normal School. 
 
 G. N. B1GE1.UW, Esq., Principal of the Normal School at Fram- 
 ingham, Mass., said : I desire to answer the question as to how 
 the good teachers in the gymnasia, in Prussia are made. I think 
 that in addition to the fact that they have had ten years' excellent 
 training under good teachers, and then four years in the university, 
 where, it is true, they are not much helped ; they go into the 
 classes to teach, some in mathematics, others in hist' ry, and are 
 watched over, and if not found successful, they are dropped ; but if 
 found successful, they are allowed to go on year after year, teach- 
 ing the same branches. I know one teacher who taught math- 
 ematics thirty years, and, if living, he is teaching in his thirty-fifth 
 year. A man who teaches thus, can teach pretty well. 
 
 I have heard our scholars say they are almost discouraged 
 because they hear so much about the soundness and thoroughness 
 of the German teachers, who teach without any book. But I am 
 prepared to say that with the same preparation and the same schol- 
 arship, our teachers will teach better than they do. The informa- 
 tion of some who graduate from the gymnasia is not such as we 
 should be satisfied with in the scholars of our high schools in some 
 respects. Their knowledge of the geography of distant countries 
 is not so good as it is even among our own teachers. In many 
 things we are far behind them, while in others we surpass them. 
 
REMARKS OF PROF. PHELPS. 47 
 
 On motion, by Mr. Northrop, the further discussion of the sub- 
 ject was suspended. 
 
 Mr. C. E. HovEY, of Bloomington, Illinois, then read a paper on 
 " Model Schools, Schools of Practice, or Experimental Schools." 
 
 On motion of Rev. E. C. Wines, the following resolution was 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the cordial thanks of this Association be ten- 
 dered to the Hon. Richard S. Field, for his generous invitation to 
 entertain the members of the Association at his mansion, in Prince- 
 ton, on Friday next, and that we cheerfully accept the invitation to 
 visit the literary institutions of Princeton, and partake of his hospi- 
 talities on that day. 
 
 Adjourned. 
 
 WEDNESDAY EVENING. 
 
 On recommendation of the Committee on Nominations, the offi- 
 cers of the Association for the last year were re-elected as follows : 
 Wm F. Phelps, of N. J., Pres. A. Holbrook, Ohio, Vice-Pres. 
 
 Geo. N. Bigelovv, Mass., Vice-Pres. B. G. Northrop, Mass., Secretary. 
 
 David N. Camp, Conn., " " J. A. Bartholomew, Conn., " 
 
 Dana P. Colburn, E. I., " '* John W. Dickinson, Treas. 
 
 David H. Cochran, N.Y., " " John W. Bulkley, N. Y., Councilor. 
 
 Charles E. Hovey, 111., " " Philip A Cregar, Penn. , 
 
 Richard Edwards, Mo., " " Alpheus Crosby, Mass., 
 
 A. S. Welch, Mich., " '* Miss Irene B. Colby, 
 
 A. S. Robertson, C. West, " " " Martha Kingman, Mass., 
 
 Monk, P. Ed. Island, " " *' Frances P. Morrit, " 
 
 Chauveaii, C. East, " " '* Eliza B. Woodward, 'J 
 
 John Ogden, Ohio, " " 
 
 Prof. Chas. E. Hovey declined the office of Vice-President, but 
 no action was taken on the subject. 
 
 A valuable and practical address on the Normal School System 
 of Massachusetts was given by the Hon. Geo. S. Boutwell, of 
 Mass. We very much regret that our excellent and accurate re- 
 porter did not furnish a sketch of it. 
 
 Prof. Phelps explained a former remark of his by saying he did 
 not mean to be understood as claiming that the best method of teach- 
 ing the art of teaching was to teach any particular branch in the 
 be^t possible way ; but he simply put the question if that was not 
 one uf the best methods. We do not claim that there is any one best 
 
48 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 method^ but that Normal School best fulfilU its objects which most 
 judiciously combines all the most approved methods. 
 
 Gov. BouTWELL responded that he only desired to show what 
 was the theory that should be adhered to, although they were often 
 obliged to yield to circumstances and admit pupils less qualified than 
 they should be. 
 
 The best teaching in Massachusetts is not generally by the best 
 educated men. Provision was made in 1853 for educating forty- 
 eight young tneii at the colleges of the State, the State paying part 
 of the expense, upon the express agreement that the recipients of 
 this favor should teach four years in the schools of the State or re- 
 fund the money ; and there was a provision that these graduates 
 should have the privilege of attending a Normal School one term. 
 We have not been able to get one of them into a Normal School. I 
 do not know what the influence of college life is, lihat it leads them 
 to suppose they are educated in the art of teaching when they leave 
 college. 
 
 Prof. C. E. HovEY, of Bloomington, Illinois, wished to inquire 
 if there is now, or ever has been, a Normal School where four 
 fifths of the time was not spent in teaching the branches of learn- 
 ing, and only one fifth in teaching the art of teaching. 
 
 Gov. BouTWELL replied, that he was willing to admit that the 
 proportion was as suggested ; but still, we must work with a def- 
 inite plan, and must keep the distinction which has been again and 
 again presented between Normal Schools and others. 
 
 Mr. Emerson stated, to prevent misapprehension in regard to 
 the State scholarships of Massachusetts, that only one class had 
 graduated since they were established. Only nine students have 
 come out who could enjoy the advantages of it. To enjoy them, 
 they must occupy a position in the first half of their class ; and 
 some of them got below that. He did not think a class would 
 easily be got into a Normal School where they would not need to 
 teach four times as much fact as of the art of teaching. But there 
 is such a thing as teaching the art of teaching the very elements — 
 the alphabet, counting, etc. 
 
 Prof. Crosby stated that graduates of colleges had attended some 
 of the Normal Schools of Massachusetts, and asked Mr. Dickinson, 
 of Westfield, to state if some had not been in his school. 
 
 Prof. D. P. CoLBURNj of the R. I. Normal School, said he had 
 
REMARKS OF MR. COLBURN. 49 
 
 known college graduates in the Normal Schools of Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut ; and some who are attending college have attend- 
 ed the Normal School of Rhode Island. 
 
 Mr. Peckham, of Newark, said that college graduates had at- 
 tended the Normal School in Newark. 
 
 Mr. Dickinson, of Westfield, Mass., said that one gentleman 
 who was a graduate of a Normal School before entering college, 
 had returned after leaving college, and two others had been in the 
 school at Westfield ten weeks. They manifested the same good 
 spirit which actuates other members of the class. 
 
 Mr. RowE, of New York, knew two others, one of whom had 
 graduated twenty-four years before he entered the Normal School, 
 where he spent four months. 
 
 Prof. D. N. Camp, of the Connecticut Normal School, said it was 
 not uncommon for graduates of Yale College to join the Normal 
 School before teaching, though they do not usually spend a long 
 time there. There have been instances of graduates who have 
 gone through the whole course and taken a diploma. 
 
 Mr. HovEY did not believe any graduate of a college would enter 
 a Normal School if he had been thoroughly acquainted with the 
 elementary branches before he entered college. If the theory of 
 Normal Schools is to be that you are only to teach the art of teach- 
 ing, no Normal School can be supported three months in the United 
 States. You can not drive a man into one who understands per- 
 fectly well the subject-matter he is to teach. To get methods of teach- 
 ing is not the thing that takes students to these schools. They want 
 not only to know how to teach, but what to teach, and why such a 
 thing is taught in a particular way. Those schools that teach the 
 subjects as well as the way to teach them, turn out 'he best teachers. 
 My idea, said Mr. H., is, that a true Normal School is one where 
 they aim to give their students : first, what to teach — let them know 
 as much as possible before they come, provided they do not know 
 so much they will not come ; then, how to teach. 
 
 Mr. CoLBURs — I did not think of rising ; but an allusion has 
 been made to my own teacher, Mr. Tillinghast, a man whose mem- 
 ory I shall always cherish, who has done as much as any teacher 
 in this country, and has left his mark deeply on his pupils. 
 
 1 wish to speak of his course in the Normal School. He did 
 the work which the gentleman from Illinois has indicated, that of 
 
 3 
 
50 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 instructing in the branches to be taught ; not because he believecl 
 it was his duty to do that as a teacher of a Normal School. I know 
 that ; for I was a teacher with him three years, and I was a mem- 
 ber of his family for some time, and therefore 1 know perfectly what 
 his views were on that point. He felt that teaching the elements 
 was not his appropriate work ; he regretted that he was under the 
 necessity of doing it, and he tried to relieve himself of it as much 
 as possible. He came to that school without much knowledge of 
 methods ; he saw the defects and the excellences in existing insti- 
 tutions, and he worked out his own plans, which his pupils have 
 carried out in their schools with great success. His practice, his 
 theory, his life will not warrant the inference of the gentleman from 
 Illinois, that Mr. Tillinghast preferred to teach the art of teaching 
 by drilling in the branches to be taught. 
 
 Mr. F. A. Sawyer, of Charleston, S. C — It seems to me that 
 the remarks of gentlemen do not reveal a decided difference, but 
 are views from different stand-points. It is true that the subjects 
 which we are to learn, how to teach in Normal Schools, must be 
 taught there as to their principles. We must not only learn how to 
 teach arithmetic, grammar, etc., but we must learn the branches 
 themselves. In the High Schools they are taught as an end, but 
 in the Normal Schools they are used as an instrument to gain an 
 end. It is utterly impossible for me to show you how to weave 
 unless I have the warp and woof. I can not teach how to teach 
 arithmetic or geography unless I use the facts in those sciences to 
 illustrate. Undoubtedly the theory of a Normal School is, that it 
 is a place to learn to teach. It is equally obvious to me that the 
 knowledge of every one of the branches to be taught must be there 
 brought out in the best possible manner ; and while Mr. Tillinghast 
 was giving instruction in the branches, he was acting on this very 
 theory. His main object was to teach teachers how to teach, and 
 at the same time he used these branches as the tools of his trade. 
 So that it seems to me that both sets of opinions agree. 
 
 I presume we all agree that the object of Normal Schools is to 
 raise teachers, and not to give primary instruction ; and at the 
 same time, there is not, and probably never will be, one that works 
 up completely to its theory. We work up to no standard fully ; we 
 only work approximately. That is no reason why we should not 
 keep the aim high and do what we can to reach it. A man may 
 
KEMAUKS OF DE. WINES. 51 
 
 lecture on methods of teaching all his life and not make good 
 teachers. It is necessary that he should show his method of 
 teaching. 
 
 There is a great advantage in a Normal class being thoroughly 
 acquainted with the principles of the branches of study, for then 
 the attention may be directed to the methods entirely. 
 
 Mr. CoLBURN — I suppose no one will say the practice comes up 
 to the theory. The same is true in the Grammar School. But I do 
 not believe any one can teach that which he does not know him- 
 self. The knowledge must be had, whether it is obtained in the 
 Normal School or elsewhere. The person who, in the Normal 
 School, has to give all his attention to learning the subjects, can 
 give none to methods. 
 
 A committee, consisting of Gen. H. K. Oliver, Rev. E. C. Wines, 
 D.D., Frederick A. Sawyer, John Ogden, and John S. Hart, were ap- 
 pointed to prepare and report resolutions relating to the life, char- 
 acter, and educational labors of Hon. Horace Manx. 
 
 THURSDAY MORNING. 
 The Association met at half-past nine ; prayer was offered by the 
 Rev. Dr. Wines, and the minutes were read by the Secretary. 
 
 DISCUSSION RESUMED. 
 
 The subject in order this morning was the discussion of thepa- 
 per presented by Mr. Hovey, of Illinois ; but gentlemen who took 
 the floor seemed rather to fix their thoughts upon the general topic 
 previously considered, that of the sphere of Normal Schools. 
 
 Dr. ^. C. Wines, of St. Louis, said : Mr. President — Thus 
 far, in the deliberations of this body, I have been a mere listener — 
 an attentive, delighted, instructed listener. I have heard much 
 here which has enlightened my mind, as well as refreshed and 
 cheered my spirit. With most that has been advanced in the dis- 
 cussions on this occasion, so far as I had formed opinions at all upon 
 the points under consideration, I heartily concur. From a few of 
 the sentiments expressed, I feel constrained to dissent. I have never 
 had the honor or the pleasure to be personally connected with a 
 Normal School ; although I may claim, I hope without arrogance 
 or presumption, to have been a pioneer in the movement which 
 
52 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 looked toward the establishment of Normal Schools in this my native 
 State. More than twenty-five years ago I read a paper in favor of 
 the establishment of this class of institutions in an Educational Con- 
 vention in Princeton, of which the late venerable Drs. Miller and 
 Alexander were members. As soon as Mr. Cousin's celebrated 
 work on the Prussian system of education came out, I prepared and 
 published an extended review of it. In 1836 or 1837, I published 
 a book — " Hints on Popular Education" — in which my convictions 
 of the utility and importance of Normal Schools were set forth at 
 length and with as much strength of language and force of reason- 
 ing as I could command. And during a period of some fifteen 
 years — from 1833 to 1848 — I published various papers and deliv- 
 ered numerous lectures and addresses, in different parts of this 
 State, in favor of the institution of schools for the professional 
 training of teachers. I refer to these things, not by way of boast 
 — I trust that I am free from such contemptible vanity — but to show 
 that, although I have never given instruction in a Normal School, 
 yet this class of institutions is not altogether unfamiliar to my 
 thoughts and studies. 
 
 And now, sir, I desire to say a word or two on a question which 
 has elicited much discussion on this floor, and developed consid- 
 erable difference of opinion — I mean the true theory qf the Normal 
 School — a question, Mr. President, which you have, more than 
 once since this meeting commenced, truly designated as one of grave 
 importance. 
 
 The eminent gentleman from Massachusetts (Gov. Boutwell) 
 who addressed us with so much wisdom and eloquence last 'even- 
 ing, holds that the true theory of the Normal School is, that it is an 
 institution designed solely and exclusively for teaching the science 
 and the art of teaching, though he admitted that we never had 
 reached, and never could reach, that ideal. The gentleman from 
 Illinois (Prof. Hovey) holds, or seems to hold, that the proper 
 theory of the Normal School is, that it is an institution designed to 
 teach the various branches of human knowledge themselves in the 
 best manner, and, hy so teaching them, impart to the learners the 
 ability to teach them themselves. Now, I am free to confess that these 
 views strike me as extreme in the two opposite directions which opin- 
 ion on this point may take. So they struck the gentleman from South 
 Carolina (Mr. Sawyer), whose speech, in my judgment, would have 
 
REMAKKS OF DK. WINES. 53 
 
 left little to be said if he had not yielded the theory advanced by 
 the orator of last evening (Gov. Boutweil). 
 
 Now, iMr. President, what is the Normal School l It is a pro- 
 fessional institution, resembling, in this respect, our medical, theo- 
 logical, law, and military- schools. And here I can not but express 
 a very slight dissent from the view entertained by my old and 
 highly esteemed friend, Dr. Hart, that the Normal School differs 
 essentially from the other institutions called professional, in that it 
 aims to teach the art of teaching, and so to make teachers, while 
 they aim only to make practitioners. Now the fact is undoubtedly so, 
 yet it does not, as I conceive, involve any difference m principle be- 
 tween this and other professional schools, but only a difference in 
 method or detail. All professional institutions alike — the Normal 
 School included — aim to impart knowledge and skill in some par- 
 ticular business, some one or other of the practical arts of life. The 
 medical college aims to impart ability in the business of healing the 
 sick ; the law school, in defending the right and in bringing wrong- 
 doers to justice ; the theological seminary, in leading men to re- 
 pentance, faith, and good works ; the military academy, in con- 
 ducting the multifarious operations of war. Precisely in the same 
 way the Normal School aims to impart to some men ability in the 
 business of teaching other men. The general object of all these 
 various institutions is one — that of preparing men for some special 
 pursuit m life ; the particular objects differ greatly, which must 
 necessarily give rise to some difference in the methods of pros- 
 ecuting the general object. 
 
 Mr. President, this brings us to a point from which we are pre- 
 pared, I think, to take another step, intelligently, in our study of 
 the true theory of the Normal School. Since the Normal School 
 is essentially the same in principle as other professional schools, it 
 would seem to follow that a just theory of the Normal School will 
 correspond, in ail essential particulars, with the true theory of other 
 professional institutions. If, then, we can get at the true theory of 
 medical, law, divinity, and military schools, we shall not be very far 
 from a solution of the question before us, viz., the true theory of the 
 Normal School. Happily, these institutions have been so long in 
 existence, and are so well settled in their principles and practice, 
 that all here is light and certainty. The true idea of a medical col- 
 lege is not that it is designed simply to teach the theory and prac- 
 
54 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 tice of medicine, but also all the wide range of knowledge connected 
 with that profession. The true theory of a divinity school is not 
 that it is an institution designed solely to impart the art and mys- 
 tery of making and delivering sermons, but also to teach theolojjy, 
 exegesis, ecclesiastical history, and all other knowledge needful to 
 the successful preacher. So of the other professional schools re- 
 ferred to. The primary object of all is to impart skill in some par- 
 ticular profession ; but, as subsidiary and conducive to this, they all 
 alike aim to impart at the same time the knowledge belonging to 
 that profession. What, for instance, would be thought of a divinity 
 school which should require of its candidates to be versed in theol- 
 ogy before entering, and should confine its actual curriculum to the 
 department of homiletics, i. e., to the science and art of sermon- 
 izing ? What would be thought of a military academy which should 
 require, as a condition of entrance, that its cadets be acquainted with 
 the mathematical, historical, and other knowledge necessary to the 
 military profession, and should limit its actual labors to the endeavor 
 to impart the additional knowledge of the art of fortification and mil- 
 itary tactics ? The theory, then, of all professional schools, other 
 than the Normal, is, that they not only train their students to the spe- 
 cial duties of their several professions, but also impart to them the 
 essential knowledge, or knowledges, belonging to those professions. 
 Does the Normal School form an exception ? If so, upon what 
 principle is its exceptional character based ? If such exceptional 
 principle exist, I have never yet perceived it, and would be glad to 
 have it pointed out. With the light I now possess, and after bestow- 
 ing the best thought upon the subject which I can command, I am 
 brought to the conclusion that the just and true theory of the Normal 
 School is, that it is, in the strict and proper sense, a professional 
 institution, and that it should aim, primarily, to impart to its pupils 
 a thorough preparation for their future profession of teaching, and, 
 secondarily, an ample and complete knowledge of the branches of 
 learning properly belonging to that profession. And I can not 
 but look upon any theory of these institutions, which confines them 
 to the labor of imparting to their students, simply and solely, the 
 science and the art of teachings as not sufliciently broad, compre- 
 hensive, generous. On the contrary, such a theory of the Normal 
 School seems to me far too rigid, narrow, partial,, pinched, and 
 chilling. 
 
REMARKS OF GOV. BOUTWKLL. 55 
 
 I submit these views with a very great and cordial respect for 
 the opinions of a contrary kind which have been expressed, and for 
 the gentlemen who have expressed them. It did seem to me, last 
 evening, something like a fog or mist was settling down upon the 
 question ; and whether I have done anything toward clearing away 
 that mist, must be left to the judgment of others instead of myself. 
 
 Gov. BouTWELL responded. If you have a Normal School, will 
 you have a theory as to what it shall be ? Do you contemplate 
 anything ? Do you mean to do anything that other people, other 
 schools, other institutions do not contemplate doing ? If you do 
 not, why do you have institutions which you call Normal Schools, 
 and why do you as.semble here as the representatives of this partic- 
 ular interest of education in the country ? Does any man say that 
 he has no theory, no purpose, no idea, that he does not contemplate 
 doing anything different from what other people do ? If he says 
 that, very well ; the whole thing is at an end. But if you say you 
 have some idea, some purpose toward which your efforts shall tend, 
 then wliat is it ? Is it to teach the alphabet ? Is it nut taught in 
 every kind of institution in the country ? Then how do you difft-r ? 
 Is it to teach the multiplication table ? Does not every girl of 
 fifteen, who goes out to teacti in the public schools, teach that? 
 Why do you expend the sums yo-u do on this institution ? Is it to 
 teach geography ? What claims have you to public consideration 
 on that ground ? None at all. Have you not enough schools to 
 teach that more cheaply and just as well ? Do you propose to make 
 of the Normal Schools just what the High Schools are ? Do you 
 propose to make other colleges of them ? Then there is no consid- 
 eration in their favor on that ground. Your xXormal School im st 
 have distinctive characteristics based upon h;:; distinctive idea of 
 the purpose in view, or else they are nothing. 
 
 Now, what is your theory ? I say it is, that you are to teach the 
 art of teaching. Any other answer, I sui)mit, is liable to the ob- 
 jection I have already indicated, that you are proposing to do, in a 
 more cumbrous way, that which other people are doing more eco- 
 nomically. Then, if you must have a theory, and if that theory 
 inevitably is that a Normal School shall teach the art of teaching, 
 is it -any objection that we do not realize our theory ? I admit that 
 we have not realized it anywhere. But what of that ? I said, last 
 evening, that the theory of the medical profession is to cure all the 
 
56 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 ills that flesh is heir to, but I said they had failed ; so the law 
 schools have failed. The gentleman from St. Louis (Dr. Wines) 
 says the theory of the law school is to enable gentlemen to defend 
 the right and oppose the wrong. I admit that is the theory, and I 
 will not say how near the practice has come to it. (Laughter.) 
 
 To some extent the Normal School is a professional school, un- 
 derlying all other schools ; and with all respect to those schools, it 
 would be of great advantage if persons who conduct them had the 
 power which the Normal School would give them. (Applause.) 
 
 " Twice two are four ; twice three are six ; twice four are eight." 
 Do you have any evidence from that recitation that I can teach the 
 multiplication table ? None at all. But if the suggestions made 
 here are true, it follows that a person who has learned the multi- 
 plication table by heart has nothing more to do to enable him 
 to teach it. If a person can repeat the multiplication table up to 
 ten, does it follow that he is too far advanced to enter the Normal 
 School ? Suppose, at a military school, the order were given to 
 shoulder arms, and the cadet should proceed to make a musket ! 
 That would be like the teacher attempting to teach before he has 
 made himself acquainted with the use of the arts which he would 
 teach, and the best method of teaching them. 
 
 1 fear that if this Convention shall allow the idea to go abroad 
 that it is contemplated by the managers and supporters of Normal 
 Schools to do what is done elsewhere, the public will come to the 
 conclusion that all these things can be done cheaper at other 
 schools. But if we contemplate teaching the art of teaching only, 
 it is the common lot of humanity that we have failed thus far in 
 realizing our ideal. But let us maintain the doctrine that the busi- 
 ness is to teach the art of teaching, and that we will receive pupils 
 only who are prepared to enter at once upon the course of in- 
 struction. 
 
 Prof. WicKEKSHAM called attention to the question for discussion, 
 which was the paper of Prof. Hovey. 
 
 The President said he had waited for some gentleman to call 
 attention to it. 
 
 Dr. lMcJilton desired to have the present discussion continued. 
 
 Prof. VViCKERSHAM did not believe there was any practical point 
 before the Association. There was no gentleman who doubted 
 that the business of a Normal School is to teach the art of teaching. 
 
REMARKS OF PROFS. HART AND PHELPS. 67 
 
 There is not, however, a Normal School in the country that can, at 
 present, dispense with giving academical instruction. The question 
 is therefore settled practically, let the theory be as it may. 
 
 Prof. W. then referred to the topic of Prof. Hovey's paper, 
 which was " Model Schools, Schools for Practice, Experimental 
 Schools." He had heard in Pennsylvania three objections against 
 model schools. First, that the classes in the school are very much 
 disarranged when members of the Normal School are sent in for 
 practice. The student teachers of the Normal School also com- 
 plain that the time they spend in the model scho is is not sufficient, 
 that they learn very little as to modes of teaching in them. The 
 people of the towns where they are, also complain that their chil- 
 dren are sent to the model school to be experimented upon ; that 
 they are placed in the hands of unskillful teachers, and that the 
 instruction is changed from day to day. We, in Pennsylvania, want 
 to hear how these objections can be answered 
 
 Prof. Hart, of Philadelphia, said that in the model school there, 
 the instruction was so much better than in the other schools, there 
 was the greatest competition on the part of parents to get their chil- 
 dren into it. They have there, in each school of practice, one per- 
 manent teacher who has charge all the time, and the pupil teachers 
 from the Normal School come down two at a time and take charge 
 under the direction of the professional, skilled teacher. 
 
 Prof. Crosby being called to the chair, Prof. Phelps first spoke 
 of the different terms used in the title of the paper read by Prof. 
 Hovey. The three names distinctly enough indicate what is ex- 
 pected to be accomplished by that branch of the Normal School 
 establishment. First, it is a model for the future teacher to study ; 
 and if we go hack historically, we shall find that the model school 
 was the origmal Normal School, where the art of teaching was 
 studied, and where the information obtained by observing the model- 
 school instruction was carried out in the practice of the teachers. 
 
 Secondly, another idea is, that those who visit shall take part in 
 the instruction of the model schools. Therefore the model school 
 answers the purpose of*a school of practice or experimental school. 
 It is used, also, to test the ability of the student to teach ; and 
 sometimes it is made the final test of the fitness of the teacher, and 
 sometimes diplomas are refused to graduates because they are not 
 successful here. 
 
 3* 
 
58 AMEKICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVE>rTION. 
 
 It is true, as Prof. Wickersham has suggested, that the pupils of 
 the Normal Schofl are somewhat interrupted in their studies by 
 their visits to the model school, and I do not. know how that can be 
 avoided. But my experience has been that though there is this dis- 
 advantage, it is more than compensated for by the practice wh'ch they 
 obtain. As to the objection of parents, that their children are exper- 
 imented upon, it is more imaginary than real. It was my fortune to 
 have charge of one experimental school for eight years, in which 
 there was no permanent teacher, and all the instruction was given 
 by the Normal class. Each member was required to observe one 
 week and then teach a week. Of course the instruction was very 
 much varied and there were disadvantages from it. Nevertheless, 
 that school was so popular, that there were always applications in 
 advance, sometimes twice as many as could be received, and that 
 too in the face of the fact that ten and twelve dollars per session 
 was the charge for each scholar. Practically, therefore, these ob- 
 jections are all answered ; because these schools do exist and are 
 very successful notwithstanding them. 
 
 In the school connected with this institution, the main thought is 
 to afford a good standard for observation and study. We want every 
 pupil to see what a really good school is. That is our first thought. 
 Secondly, we desire to give them practice as teachers. But we 
 must avoid some of the objections which will be made on the part 
 of those who send their children ; and so we adopt this expedient. 
 In each department there is a permanent teacher ; and the instruc- 
 tion during the first session of teaching by the Normal School pupils, 
 is under the constant, direct supervision of the permanent teacher, 
 who may suggest improvements as they are called for. We do not 
 send any Normal School pupil to teach during the first term of his 
 or her attendance here, because we say they must have their scholar- 
 ship improved before we will allow them to deal with these young 
 and tender minds. Each Normal pupil spends one week in each 
 term after that, in the experimental or model school. But some- 
 thing more than that is necessary ; so we have another school. 
 
 There was established, about a year ago, in this city, a school for 
 friendless children. They were brought together by some ladies, 
 clothed and fed, and an effort was made to instruct them and train 
 them to habits of usefulness. The question was, How can they be 
 instructed ? We made a proposition to give all the instruction that 
 
REMARKS OF PKOF. PHELPS. 59 
 
 the children might require if they would see that they were in school 
 each day at a given hour. We fitted up a room and the children 
 were brought into it. They were the most ungovernable children 1 
 ever saw. One little boy only four years old used oaths such as I 
 never heard, and his breath was so offensive with liquor that a per- 
 son of delicate nerves could not stand near him. They were all 
 over the room, whistling and dancing. Two persons were selected 
 from our most advanced class, a little advice was given them, and 
 they were required to go into that room and bring those children 
 under subjection ; to mark out a course of study for them, and to do 
 by them as all children should be done by in a good school. The 
 first three or four days were dark ones to those teachers. But they 
 went at it with hope and a good spirit ; the gentle yet powerful in- 
 fluence of love was employed ; the children were affectipnately 
 dealt with for the first time in their lives. In consequence of that 
 treatment, in two weeks they were brought to a good degree of 
 order ; in four weeks it would be impossible to distinguish between 
 them and any other like number of children ; and at the end of four 
 months it would be difficult to determine that they did not belong to 
 the better classes in society. An exhibition of the results of four 
 months' instruction was given in one of the churches of the city, and 
 the result satisfied the large audience, not only as to the practica- 
 bility of experimental schools, but also as to the almost superhuman 
 power of education, when it is conducted according to the true 
 theory ai.d in the right spirit. 
 
 The results of our schools have settled the question for us, of the 
 practicability and necessity of model or experimental schools, in 
 connection with instruction in the art of teaching. I look upon them 
 as indispensable ; I do not think a Normal School is complete with- 
 out them. I am aware that there have been failures of such schools, 
 but I think there were adequate causes ; the two were not closely 
 enough united under one general administration ; they must be parts 
 of () e great whole in order to be useful and successful. 
 
 I admit that the success of the model school depends very much 
 on the character of the schools in the vicinity. 
 
 In answer to an inquiry of Dr. McJilton, Prof. Phelps said that 
 the model school and experimental school were substantially the 
 same, as he used the terms. 
 
 Dr. McJjLTON — Do you require that your Normal pupils shall be 
 
60 AMERICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 fully instructed in the branches they are to teach, before they go 
 into the model school to teach ? 
 
 Prof. Phelps — We do not. They are to have five months' in- 
 struction before they can teach. Our students are so poorly pre- 
 pared that we must take that course. 
 
 Mr. D. S. RowE inquired if those sent to the model school to 
 teach were selected with reference to their teaching particular 
 branches ; to which Prof. P. replied in the negative. In the model 
 school here, he said, there are eight grades, and every pupil teacher 
 during his course has an opportunity of conducting each of these 
 grades. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Colburn, all further discussion was suspended 
 until after the reading of the next two papers. 
 
 The. first paper was presented by John Ogden, Esq., on the 
 question — 
 
 " To what extent can the art of Teaching be taught in our Normal 
 Schools ? What are the lest methods of doing this V 
 
 1 To what extent can the Art of Teaching be taught in the 
 Normal School ? 
 
 2. What are the best methods of doing this ? 
 
 These inquiries, as has been demonstrated in the discus- 
 sions of this Association, involve the necessity or useless- 
 ness — the utility or inutility — of the wliole I^ormal School 
 enterprise. All will agree that upon the extent to which 
 special instruction or professional training can be given in 
 Normal Schools, will depend their superiority for fitting 
 teachers for their duties over other literary or scientific in- 
 stitutions. If, as some still assert, there is no science of 
 education, nor art of teaching, save that which results from 
 a knowledge of the several branches of study ; or, admitting' 
 there is, still maintain that it can be as well and as exten- 
 sively taught in the college, the academy, and the common 
 school, under their present organization, as in the Normal 
 School, then indeed it would seem there is no need of the 
 latter, and we are found here advocating a false claim. 
 
61 
 
 But twenty years' experience in ]^ormal Schools ought 
 surely to have given us sufficient data upon which to pred- 
 icate a belief, ^?'0 or con. It is high time, fellow-teachers, 
 it is high time we came to some. conclusion upon these mat- 
 ters. It is high time we established some settled policy in 
 reference to these schools, or else abandon them altogether. 
 We can not afford to be forever debating the question 
 whether there is or is not a Science of Education ; whether 
 there is or is not a necessity for Normal Schools. If there 
 is, we ought to demonstrate to the world a truth that aff'ects 
 so vitally the interests of education. Our time, our labor, 
 our energies are too precious to squander on vague and un- 
 certain speculations concerning the Normal School, if so be 
 it is not a reality — nay, an inevitable necessity. 
 
 It is not our purpose, however, to discuss those issues 
 any further than what will result from arguments involved 
 in determining to what extent the art of teaching can be 
 taught in the Normal School. But we take occasion to state 
 a fact here, which will be rendered more apparent as we 
 proceed, viz., that the seeming failures in the entire triumph 
 of Normal Schools are more the results of inadequate means 
 for organizing and conducting them, and from mistaken 
 views as to their real design and capabilities, than from any 
 error in that great and fundamental idea which they repre- 
 sent, and which underlies all human growth and human 
 progress — all mental, moral, and physical development ; we 
 mean, that in order to educate a human being, lie must 
 work — he must grapple single-handed and alone with the 
 difficulties in the path of education. No second person may 
 step in to deprive him of the needed labor any further than 
 to aff*ord him the necessary conditions of growth. It is a 
 hand-to-hand fight. Every step of the way is disputed, not 
 by foes of human progress, but by toil and strife, whose 
 
62 AMERICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 sullen frowns or warj. smiles excite the soul's energies to 
 combat and victory. The individual must himself wield the 
 instruments of his education. In other words, he must think 
 and act, or teach as the Heaven-appointed, and, indeed, the 
 only means of his own perfect and full-orbed development 
 of soul, intellect, and body ; and, by so doing, he affords 
 the conditions of growth and education, in the greatest 
 abundance and truest measure, to others immediately below 
 him. This is what might be called the Divine Harmony of 
 Education. It constitutes at once the cheapest, safest, sim- 
 plest, and altogether the hest mode of educating the race. 
 But this will be rendered plainer as we proceed. 
 
 To determine the foregoing questions, it will be necessary 
 to inquire — 
 
 1. Into the nature and scope of the teacher's duties and 
 responsibilities. 
 
 2. Into the true office, capabilities, and advantages of the 
 Normal School. 
 
 These two points settled, we shall be prepared to judge 
 of the extent to which Normal School instruction can be 
 carried, as \vell as of the proper modes of conducting it. 
 
 In other words, we shall be prepared to adjust the sup- 
 plies to the w^ant — if both have a real existence — and to say 
 how far the redress of those wants lies within the compass 
 offerees wielded by the Normal School alone. The second 
 part of the inquiry, viz., How is this best done, etc., will 
 best be inferred from the investigation of these two propo- 
 sitions. 
 
 To understand the first, viz., the nature and scope of the 
 teacher's duties, it will be necessary — 
 
 1. To understand the educational susceptibility or capac- 
 ity of the subject to be educated. 
 
 2. To understand the nature and design of the educational 
 
63 
 
 instrumentalities or forces to be employed in such edu- 
 cation. 
 
 3. To understand and master the educational modes or 
 processes of application by which these results are to be 
 wrought out. 
 
 The first of these is a matter of such unspeakable im- 
 portance, that it may be said, with safety, that no true and 
 reliable processes can be adopted without it. It is the 
 " sine qua non^'' of the Teaching Art. It is a basis and con- 
 dition of all true progress in the education of the race. It 
 is to the teacher and the taught, what a knowledge of the 
 forces of i^ature is to the artist and the agriculturist. If 
 the mechanic wishes to build a house or a ship, he measures 
 strength or force with resistance, durability witli exposure, 
 and weight with power. If the sculptor is to carve a statue, 
 he must understand the nature and susceptibility of the 
 marble. If the farmer is to raise a crop, he must under- 
 stand the character of the soil, its adaptability to th-e nour- 
 ishment of the several kinds of seeds and plants. Even if 
 he wish to dig a ditch, or build a wall, he first ascertains, 
 measures, and compares capacity^ force^ and process ; for 
 herein consist the efficiency and success o^ all labor of what- 
 ever kind ; and surely teaching is not an exception. It is, 
 rather, the strongest illustration of the rule. And the im- 
 portance of the thoroughness and certainty of this kind of 
 knowledge rises just in proportion to the magnitude of the 
 duties. 
 
 But we do not propose to discuss this topic here. It were 
 sufficient to add, in the next place, that if his nature and 
 educational capacity are not understandable^ then is man 
 not educahle ; since the proper direction of his powers — in 
 which alone consists his education — must be the result of 
 this pre-understanding of them. To admit the opposite of 
 
64 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL C0NVP:NTI0N. 
 
 this involves the grossest inconsistency, not to say insult, to 
 the Creator. Since it not only compromises his benevo- 
 lence and general goodness, but his wisdom also, in that it 
 allows that the greatest interests that could concern man, in 
 this world, have been left to mere chance, or to the less reli- 
 able dictum of empiricism. Therefore we infer that man is 
 created with educational wants and desires, whose supply 
 and gratification are dependent upon antecedent causes and 
 relations, and that these, in their turn, have been intrusted 
 to him with the most evident design that he should under- 
 stand and apply them. 
 
 It has been stated here, by high authority, that we must 
 not expect to make our practice equal our theory. If it is 
 meant by this that our practice may never equal our theory, 
 then that theory or that practice must be wrong, since there 
 is a discrepancy between the two. We grant that theory 
 may precede practice, both as to time and merit ; but if 
 theory does not admit of equal practice, it involves an in- 
 consistency at once. We further conclude — 
 
 1. That education is a science whose axioms and princi- 
 ples, whose facts and formulas, are susceptible of definite 
 classification and arrangement. 
 
 2. That these can be studied and mastered just as cer- 
 tainly as the facts and principles of other sciences can ; or 
 else our boasted craft has no science for its basis ; since 
 these are the very conditions, and the only conditions^ upon 
 which a science is founded. 
 
 3. That these principles can be applied in the education 
 of every human being with no less certainty than the prin- 
 ciples of chemistry, mathematics, and philosophy are in 
 agriculture and the arts ; or else, again, there is no art of 
 teaching, save that which results from chance, since on these 
 conditions alone can any art be founded. 
 
65 
 
 This brings lis directly to the answer of the inquiry, " To 
 what extent ? etc." We answer, therefore, categorically, to 
 the full extent; and if that is not strong and definite enough, 
 we say, to the fullest possible extent, if the conditions are 
 right. But where ? In the Normal School, of course ; for 
 where else could it be taught? Not in the work-shop, 
 surely, or by the way-side, on the farm, or in the counting- 
 room or office ; though these may develop gifts (they never 
 can create any) almost indispensable to the teaching talent. 
 Nor yet is it taught in the common school or college with- 
 out separate and distinct appliances there ; for if, as has 
 been shown, there is a separate and w^ell-defined Science of 
 Education, w^hose principles underlie all human growth and 
 progress, though its perfect development may include a 
 knowledge of all other sciences, as conditional to an under- 
 standing of this, it would be as erroneous a conclusion to 
 suppose that such science would be developed by the mere 
 study of all others, except this, as that a similar, or the 
 same course, would make first-rate lawyers, doctors, mer- 
 chants, or mechanics. As well conclude that the study of 
 astronomy would make good anatomists, or that the study 
 of grammar would develop the mathematical powers. 
 
 There is therefore a science of education separate from, 
 and in a degree independent of, all other sciences. Its prin- 
 ciples find their basis in the laws of human growth and 
 development, and they are subject to our control. The art 
 of teaching is engrafted and grows upon these principles, as 
 a means of developing them, and of educating the race ; 
 which art we now proceed to notice, in reply to the last in- 
 quiry, viz., " How can the Art of Teaching be best taught 
 in the Normal School ?" 
 
 1. It is not best taught by teaching the other sciences 
 alone, or by what is called the Drills in the branches to be 
 
66 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 taught ; though this seems to be one of the necessities at 
 present, arising in part from the backward state of learning 
 among those who enter the IS^ormal School. 
 
 2. It is not best done by attempting to grind out teachers 
 after a stereotyped plan, dictating to them in special modes 
 of giving instruction in this science or that, however useful 
 this may be in suggesting original plans ; this, in effect, 
 presupposes either that all minds apprehend truth through 
 the same channels, and consequently can communicate it 
 only through 07ie. or else that it becomes necessary to force 
 this result as a condition of good teaching. It labors to 
 destroy the individual mind, and to cast it after the type of 
 some leading mind. It essentially interferes with the de- 
 velopment of individual talent in the teacher, and circum- 
 scribes the limits of independent thinking and acting. 
 
 Superintendents, lecturers at institutes, and Normal 
 School teachers get it in their heads that there are partic- 
 ular modes of teaching the several branches which all must 
 observe, and that this constitutes the great burden of the 
 teaching art ; and hence they lecture their teachers into 
 uniformity of mode in detail ; and teachers, again, in order 
 to make progress — as they suppose — must cast off them- 
 selves, and put on the superintendent. They must lay aside 
 their own armor, in which alone they can do any effective 
 service, and they must needs clothe themselves in the un- 
 natural habiliments of their ideal teacher. 
 
 Teaching becomes powerless just in the same ratio that 
 it is reflected ; and powerful, in the same ratio that it is 
 original and ria^ht. 
 
 All true teaching is as different from this second-hand 
 article as the sun is from his own rays ; and the attempt to 
 embody the mere experience or special modes of teaching 
 the several branches of science into a system, and to call it 
 
c 
 
 
 67 
 
 Science^ and to teach it as such, is not unlike an attempt 
 to battle the sun's rays and to retain and use them in 
 his absence. Bare experience or opinion is not science, 
 and no part whatsoever thereof; and to teach it as such, or 
 to rely upon it as sufficiently accurate for the purpose of 
 the Normal School, is in effect to bring the whole subject 
 of the true Science of Education, and with it the Normal 
 School, into disrepute. These things, fellow-teachers, are 
 the real hindrances to our beloved profession, and the sci- 
 ence we would establish. 
 
 Now, the teacher, to be successful, must enter the field of 
 conflict equipped in his own mail, not in false armor. He 
 must shine with his own, not with a reflected light. He 
 must warm and invigorate with his own, not with a bor- 
 rowed heat. He must teach his own thoughts, not an- 
 other's. He must bring them forth all radiant with his own 
 native intelligence. He must coin them in tlie mint of his own 
 mind. He must stamp his own impress upon them. " Where 
 shall he get them ?" He must manufacture them from ma- 
 terial furnished to his hand, from the ten thousand sources 
 open to his access. The ore, indeed, may be brought from 
 a distant mine, but the coinage mrust be a process purely 
 domestic. And not only so, but it must be pointed and 
 pinioned so that it shall wing its flight to the sanctuary of 
 the mind, making the dark places light and the rough 
 smooth. It only remains now to speak of the best methods, 
 etc., having first glanced at and contrasted some of the 
 poorest. 
 
 In accordance with the view advanced in the beginning, 
 viz., to educate a man, he must work, since this is the 
 Heaven-appointed means of developing his powers ; so, in 
 order to make teachers, they must teach or practice the art, 
 just as in any other trade or profession. In order to make 
 
68 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 a good accountant, he must use the journal and ledger. In 
 order to make a good mechanic, he must take hold of the 
 tools and use them. In order to make a good lawyer, he 
 must plead law; or. a doctor, he must practice medicine; 
 a preacher, he must preach ; a proficient in any art, he 
 must practice that art. Well, then, how is the teacher 
 made ? How does he come to his profession ? " Doctor, 
 nascitur nonfit^'' is not j^^ to be incorporated in the teach- 
 er's vocabulary, however appropriate it might be when 
 read, '•^ Poeta nascitur^''^ etc. 
 
 There is no other way, then, than by teaching, for in this 
 way alone can his talent be developed. But must he teach 
 or educate before he study the Science of Education ? ISTo, no 
 more than that the lawyer should plead law before he under- 
 stand it ; or that the doctor should practice medicine before 
 he understand human anatomy, or the laws of life and 
 health, and the use of remedies. 
 
 Now the cases are precisely analogous, and until the force 
 of the comparison is admitted in our practice, as well as in 
 our theory, our profession, and our science, and with them 
 our Normal Schools, will most likely remain where they 
 now are. • 
 
 But when and where shall the teacher teach, in order to 
 fit himself for the duties of the school-room ? We answer, 
 while he is studying this science; for its principles are best 
 evolved when they can be shown in a course of practice ; ' 
 and in the Normal School, since this furnishes the advan- 
 tages in greater abundance than other schools. The science 
 and the art go hand in hand. 
 
 To render the whole matter as brief and comprehensible 
 as possible, these things may be summed up thus : 
 
 I. There should be a thorough knowledge of the ordinary 
 branches of study, to which may be added as many extra 
 
69 
 
 arid ornamental branches as circumstances will allow. It 
 would be well if all these could be obtained in the common 
 school and the college, though their acquisition is not an- 
 tagonistic to the exercises of the Normal School. 
 
 II. To accommodate the backward state of knowledge 
 and scientific attainments, there should be a thorough class- 
 drill in the branches to be taught, for the double purpose 
 of acquiring greater thoroughness, and of exhibiting the 
 best modes of teaching. This exercise should be regarded 
 as the means rather than the end to be attained. 
 
 III. There should be a thorough and systematic study of 
 the Science of Education, which should embrace — 
 
 1. A thorough and critical knowledge of man's educa- 
 tional capacity or susceptibility, physical, intellectual, and 
 moral, through all the several stages of his growth, from in- 
 fancy to maturity. 2. A comprehensive knowledge of the 
 nature, value, and appropriateness of the educational forces 
 or instrumentalities best adapted to reach man's educational 
 capacity, and to redress his wants in each period of his life, 
 and for each department of his nature. 3. A familiar ac- 
 quaintance with the educational processes or modes of 
 applying the educational supply to the educational want, 
 throughout the several periods of man's growth, and for his 
 physical, intellectual, and moral nature. 
 
 This disposition of matters presupposes the existence of 
 an educational system that shall fit man like a garment, an- 
 ticipating and providing for every educational want, as 
 manifested in his constitution and life. And that such a 
 system can be devised is only in keeping with the great 
 designs of the Creator, who placed man in such a relation 
 as to demand the development of all his powers ; and surely 
 his powers can not properly be developed without such a 
 system. The conclusion, therefore, is, God either does not 
 
70 AMERICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 demand of him such a development, or else such a system 
 is possible, for God never has demanded an impossibility, 
 nor even an unnecessary thing. It is therefore both possi- 
 ble and necessary. 
 
 This topic also looks to the thorough investigation and 
 understanding of the school-room duties, in the order of 
 their relative importance. Such discussion should not be 
 confined to one or two of these duties, as, for example, to 
 recitation, which, important as it is, ranks no higher, and 
 indeed not so high, as an educational instrumentality, as 
 study and some others. But it should embrace everything 
 that pertains to School Organization : Preliminaries, Study, 
 Recitation, Business, Recreation, Government, and all of 
 these in their most extensive application, studying the prin- 
 ciples that obtain in them, and disposing of them in such a 
 way that they may be applied by the individual teacher to 
 the specific cases. 
 
 There is a limited number of principles involved in these 
 duties, and hence they can be arranged as proper objects of 
 study ; but their application is infinite, forbidding even the 
 possibility as well as the practicability of the study and 
 practice of individual modes. This should forever put an 
 end to this eternal rage after pet plans. 
 
 lY. The last and crowning exercise, in training teachers, 
 should consist in their giving instruction, and conducting 
 all the exercises, and performing all the duties of the school- 
 room. This should, however, be variously interspersed 
 throughout the greater part of the professional course ; for, 
 just as soon as a pupil learns a thing, he should tell it or 
 teach it ; he should learn to use it, not only as a means of 
 retaining it and of strengthening and developing his own 
 powers, but as the Heaven-appointed means of perpetuating 
 knowledge and of educating those lower down in the scale 
 
n 
 
 of knowledge. The model school thus becomes an indis- 
 pensable appendage to the ISTormal School ; and it is rightly 
 termed a model school, since no other form of school ap- 
 proximates so nearly the great idea of a perfect educational 
 process. It constitutes a mutual exchange, an easy com- 
 merce, a happy and consistent blending of study and teach- 
 ing, of acquisition and use, an interchangeable relation of 
 want and supply. 
 
 It never was intended that the education of the young 
 should be a burden, either as to expense or labor, much less 
 a drudgery. The Normal pupil needs the exercise of giv- 
 ing instruction and teaching, while the model pupil needs 
 the instruction. Here we see the economy and simplicity 
 of all true modes of educating. It is only following na- 
 ture's dictates, and giving free scope to man's activities. 
 
 To suppose that the education of the rising generations 
 requires the sacrifice of life, health, or the pleasures arising 
 from these, is an admission too monstrous for belief. What, 
 kill the body to make the mind alive ? Will the blood of 
 teachers enrich the soil of intelligence ? Must the road to 
 learning be paved with the bones of departing and departed 
 teachers? We ought to be ashamed of such doctrine ; and 
 to think of the unborn toil and suffering of the races yet to 
 come, is enough to sicken even the teacher's heart. 
 
 But, friends, look up ! A brighter day dawns ! Educa- 
 tion is life, not death ; it is health, not sickness ; it is strength, 
 not weakness ; it is liberty, not ret^traint ; it is glorious 
 action, busy thought, and exercise to all man's legitimate 
 powers. It makes a man stronger physically, intellectually, 
 morally. It makes him live longer. It makes him wiser, 
 better, happier ; for it develops, strengthens, intensifies, 
 chastens, refines, and sublimates all his powers, and lifts 
 him into a higher sphere of enjoyment ; and, thank Heaven, 
 
72 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 our Bystem is approximating this glorious ideal of per- 
 fection. 
 
 It is no vain prophecy, for see : for two hundred years, and 
 for the last twenty-five years in particular, we have been strug- 
 gling up to the light in the great matter of educating boys 
 and girls. We have systematized, we have aggregated, we 
 have classified, so that the fewest teachers could take charge 
 of the greatest number of scholars. This was an important' 
 move in the right direction — a grand, a glorious, a neces- 
 sary move. In this way the great Common-School System 
 of the nineteenth century has thrown its £egis of protection 
 around all the children of our land. It has brought into 
 line this untamed force, and conducted it safe through the 
 first stages of education. But must we stop here ? Are 
 there no other stages or advances ? Must we needs stop 
 within sight of the goal ? 
 
 To one accustomed to take philosophical views of the 
 workings of our present system, its excesses must be ap- 
 parent. It is excessive system, excessive classification, 
 excessive teaching. These may appear like strange words 
 to employ here ; but it needs but the careful eye of obser- 
 vation to see that this excessive System and classification 
 only educates children in masses — often at the expense of 
 individual talent and development. We educate the gen- 
 eral boy, and the general girl, not the beautiful, symmet- 
 rical individual ; though these result sometimes, in spite of 
 our education. But this only shows how educable the 
 race is. 
 
 Many of our public schools and colleges — the Union 
 Schools in large cities in particular, where the system has 
 fully developed itself — resemble planing-machines. Every 
 pupil must pass through the same orifice — must have just 
 so much trimmed off here, and so much added there. He 
 
73 
 
 must pass through the same course, in precisely the same 
 time and manner, with very few variations. The scholar is 
 bent to the course, and not the course to the scholar. The 
 dose is prepared, and he must swallow it, " nolens volens/'' 
 
 Now perhaps this is the best thing that could be done, 
 under the circumstances, where each teacher is compelled 
 to teach from fifty to seventy-five and one hundred scholars 
 day after day, with scarcely a varilation. But when the 
 true idea of education shall be realized — to which we are 
 fast approaching — every fifty scholars and every school- 
 room will have half a score of teachers — pupil teachers, 
 exchanging their knowledge for practice — giving, but re- 
 ceiving ten-fold in return. 
 
 The model school — not the monitorial school, strictly — 
 has inaugurated this improvement, and our teachers are fast 
 availing themselves of its advantages. When it shall have 
 been fully established, labor will be more equally divided 
 between teachers that may be dying from excess of it, and 
 the pupils for the want of it. "When that day shall have 
 been fully ushered in, the last page in the history of the 
 Normal School, as a separate institution, will have heen 
 written J for every school will be a Normal School, and 
 every teacher a model teacher, and every pupil a model 
 pupil. Heaven speed the day ! Until its dawn, and for 
 its dawn, let us labor and wait. 
 
 The essay of Richard Edwards, Esq., in his absence, was read 
 by Dr. Sumner C. WtBB. The subject was — 
 
 " On the Course of Study best Suited to the Objects of American 
 Normal Schools" 
 
 MR. EDWARDS' PAPER. 
 
 In this discussion it is quite clear that the first thing to 
 be done is to settle with some degree of definiteness what 
 the objects of American Normal Schools are. For what 
 
 4 
 
74: AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 purposes were they established, and what ends do their 
 friends hope to accomplish by means of them. I believe 
 that most of the statutes establishing such schools set it 
 forth as their end " to qualify teachers for the common 
 schools." So that the objects to be accomplished by the 
 Normal School depend upon what it is intended or desired 
 that the common schools shall be. That must be put into 
 \)ciQ, former which we would see reproduced in the latter. 
 
 And the object to be accomplished in the common school, 
 as we have heard it stated a hundred times, is the develop- 
 ment of all that is good, noble, and great in every child 
 subjected to their influence ; the building up in each one 
 of a symmetrical manhood or womanhood. And this end, ' 
 we are told, is to be attained in respect to the three-fold 
 nature of the child — the physical, the intellectual, and the 
 moral. And the development is also to be " harmonious," 
 not only in respect to these three grand divisions of the 
 being, but also in respect to the component parts of each. 
 That wliich is noblest is to be made the ruling principle : 
 the reason is to control the propensities and the movements 
 of the physical frame, and is itself to be subject to the con- 
 science, which, in the normally developed man, is the su- 
 preme dictator among the human powers. 
 
 For the attaining of this result, instrumentalities are em- 
 ployed, consisting of certain branches of knowledge, certain 
 bodily exercises, and the application of certain truths in 
 morals. All these are needed as instruments in the educa- 
 tion of children in the common school. 
 
 Now the Normal School should teach its pupils, who in- 
 tend to undertake the work of the common school, the 
 nature and use of these instrumentalities, the latter as its 
 main function, and the former so far as is necessary. 
 
 It should, if need be, teach. him what his tools are, and it 
 
Y5 
 
 should certainly teach him how to use them. Here, then, 
 we have something to guide us in determining the course 
 of study that should be adopted in the Normal School. It* 
 the student lacks a proper knowledge of the studies he is to 
 teach, if he does not in the most thorough manner un- 
 derstand them, then the first business to attend to in the 
 Kormal School is to acquire such thorough understanding ; 
 he must become familiar with the implements he is after- 
 ward to use. 
 
 The next and the main point in such a school is to learn 
 how to use these implements, how to make every study 
 effective in the development of some power in every child. 
 And if, as appears to be always the case, the ability to do 
 this, in respect to any one subject, implies an acquaintance 
 with other kindred subjects ; if, in order to teach arith- 
 metic well and philosophically, the teacher must have some 
 accurate knowledge of algebra ; if geography can be prop- 
 erly taught only by him who knows something of astronomy ; 
 if to give useful instruction in the English language, one 
 must know some language besides, then of course the incip- 
 ient teacher must be furnished with this additional culture 
 as a part of his preparation. . 
 
 Properly, much of this work belongs elsewhere, and 
 should be performed before the pupil reaches the ]S"ormal 
 School. Theoretically, only the science and the art of 
 teacliing should engage the attention of students in sucli a 
 school. 
 
 It is a professional institution, and should properly be 
 held responsible only for professional work. The law school 
 is not called in question for neglecting to teach the Latin 
 Prosody, nor ought the Normal School to be required to 
 give instruction in geography and English grammar. But 
 our theme relates to American Normal Schools, and we 
 
76 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 have therefore to do, not so much with this abstract idea, 
 as with the kind of institution adapted to the wants of our 
 community. And let us remember that institutions are not 
 to be maintained as ends, but only as means ; that the ques- 
 tion is not how to build up Normal Schools, but how to 
 make them subserve the public wants ; and, indeed, that 
 every institution should be so adjusted to these wants as to 
 aid in the improvement of the race, and in the increase of 
 human happiness ; and that if any institution fails to do 
 this, and becomes only an artificial, theoretical thing, di- 
 vorced from the interests and sympathies of the community 
 in which it is established, then it is a shell without the ker- 
 nel, a form without the substance ; a petrifaction merely, 
 from which the living soul, if there ever was one, has de- 
 parted. 
 
 'No one of course will understand this as meaning that a 
 school should never go beyond the public sentiment in its 
 requisitions and scholarship. In re-pect to scholarship and 
 many other things, it is one of the functions of every school, 
 of whatever grade, to lead and hring ujp public sentiment. 
 It should not be merely an index of what this sentiment is^ 
 and how far it has advanced^ but a beacon set upon a hill, 
 yet not so high but that its rays may illumine the regions 
 of every-day life. 
 
 While therefore the Normal School ought to have for 
 its chief purpose the giving of instruction in the art of 
 teaching, it should by no means neglect to supply any de- 
 fect in the qualification of any of its pupils for the practi- 
 cal work of teaching. We may, however, reasonably hope 
 that as the years roll on, the need of such deviation from a 
 strictly professional course may diminish, and that these 
 seminaries for teachers may be able to confine themselves 
 more to their strictly legitimate function. 
 
77 
 
 In view of what was stated at the outset, we see that the 
 study in a Normal School should be such as to fit its grad- 
 uates for the proper education of their own pupils phys- 
 ically, intellectually, and morally. This will include the 
 knowledge of principles and methods of training and gov- 
 erning, and in respect to many things the knowledge of 
 the branches of study to be taught. Perhaps the follow- 
 ing schedule may embrace most of the subjects that should 
 be included in such a course : 
 
 Human Anatomy and Physiology, especially the latter, 
 and the laws of health, including rules in respect to diet, 
 exercise, ventilation, dress, etc. Gymnastic and Orthosomic 
 exercises, having for their object the development of mus- 
 cular power and vigor, grace of movement, and physical 
 health generally. 
 
 A careful and critical Keview (for the purpose of illus- 
 trating methods) of some at least of the studies which the 
 pupil is afterward to teach, and, as has already been sug- 
 gested, a supplying of any defect in necessary knowledge 
 exhibited by the student. 
 
 The Science and Art of Teaching, including or presup- 
 posing Mental and Moral Philosophy, and including, also. 
 Practice in Teaching. 
 
 A critical and careful study of the English language and 
 some of its best literature, with Practice in Composition ; 
 also including Elocution and Phonetic Analysis. 
 
 Let us briefly consider, in order, each of the topics men- 
 tioned. 
 
 Of the first, Human Physiology and the laws of health, 
 little need be said. It constitutes the theoretic element in 
 physical education, and is a prominent subject of study in 
 every Kormal School with which I am acquainted, and thus 
 far, certainly, all is as it should be. There is an eminent 
 
Y8 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 propriety in giving teachers as good an idea of the human 
 frame, and the functions of its organs, as their circum- 
 stances will permit them to acquire ; the omission of this in 
 a Normal School would go far toward making it unworthy 
 of its name. But is there any excuse for the very common 
 neglect of the second of our topics ? We are constantly 
 saying that education consists, not in the pouring of facts 
 and principles into the mind, but in an actual exercise of 
 the powers to be educated — in actually putting forth vigor- 
 ously, but prudently, the strength they possess, in order that 
 they may acquire more. And yet it is scarcely true that in 
 our Normal Schools, taken generally, physical training has 
 assumed its place as a regular and required daily exercise, 
 scientifically conducted. I know that young men are ex- 
 horted to saw wood, and young ladies to take walks, and 
 that some schools even possess a more or less extended set 
 of gymnastic apparatus. But how many are furnished with 
 an instructor especially fitted to give the necessary direc- 
 tions, who insists on the daily performance of the work 
 assigned ? The matter is usually left to the tastes and in- 
 clinations of the pupils, and, as a consequence, is engaged 
 in with a degree of indiflference and irregularity, or omitted 
 altogether. 
 
 What would be thought of the plan of throwing a few 
 books on mathematics in the way of students, and then ex- 
 pecting them to become thorough proficients in geometry 
 and the calculus ? Does it not seem the strangest thing of 
 all that we should be guilty of such absurd inconsistency in 
 that department in which it becomes, from the nature of 
 things, the most obvious and glaring ? 
 
 How much strength of muscle and tone of nerve is ac- 
 quired by sitting up half a night in preparing a long and 
 difficult lesson on the structure and hygienic laws of exten- 
 
79 
 
 SOTS SLudJlexors and the philosophy of common and special 
 sensation ? Of all departments of school instruction, this is 
 the most unfortunate, for the permitting of such a disparity 
 between theory and practice, and, strictly speaking, the 
 learning of lessons in physiology, is not physical education ; 
 it is a species of intellectual culture — faculties of mind, and 
 not organs of body, are trained by it ; it may strengthen 
 the memory and the reason, but it does not enlarge the mus- 
 cles nor improve the digestion. 
 
 It is a source of much gratification to notice that in many 
 schools measures are being taken for securing the proper 
 training in this respect; a difference should be made be- 
 tween the exercises intended for boys and those intended 
 for girls. By some instructors, in this department, they are 
 distinguished by the name of Gymnastics for the former and 
 Orthosomics for the latter. Gymnastic exercises are more 
 vigorous and violent, and require more strength and endur- 
 ance of muscle than the other species ; and although both 
 tend to produce grace of movement when directed by a per- 
 son whose own motions are graceful, yet the latter have this 
 more prominently as an object. 
 
 To give a detailed account of the method of conducting 
 such exercises, and of the apparatus required, would be 
 altogether beside our present discussion, and would swell 
 this paper to an unreasonable length, and we therefore pass 
 on to the third topic, simply adding that these exercises 
 are of such a character that they could easily be introduced 
 into any public school in the country without at all impair- 
 ing its efficiency in other directions, and that the cost of the 
 apparatus absolutely required would scarcely be felt as a 
 burden anywhere. We believe that the common-school 
 teacher should be as regularly prepared to conduct this 
 branch of education as to give instruction in arithmetic or 
 
80 AMEBICAJSr NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 orthography ; and hence the necessity of introducing it into 
 the E'ormal School. 
 
 In regard to the third division upon our schedule, it does 
 not seem necessary to speak at much length. It will no 
 doubt be conceded by all, that a review of some of the 
 studies in which the student is expected to give instruction 
 is quite necessary in order to give distinctness to the sug- 
 gestions made in the Kormal School concerning methods of 
 teaching. 
 
 Further than this, the work of the I^^ormal Schools, under 
 this head, will consist simply in supplying defects in the stu- 
 dent's culture, which, theoretically considered, ought to 
 have been done by other institutions. 
 
 I know that this occupies almost the entire attention of 
 many teachers' seminaries, and I believe that even if it 
 were the only thing attempted by them — if the special study 
 of the science and art of teaching were entirely omitted — 
 that even then they would be far from being mere acade- 
 mies or high schools. For to say nothing of the silent, 
 reciprocal influence generated among a company of young 
 people, assembled to prepare themselves for teachers ; to 
 say nothing of the spirit of professional enthusiasm awak- 
 ened under such circumstances, there is such a thing as 
 studying a subject with special reference to teaching it; 
 and of so teaching it as to illustrate sound principles and 
 superior methods of instruction; but after all, it seems to 
 me, we shall be gainers by making these institutions more 
 and more professional — by making the theory and art of 
 teaching the chief subject of attention in them, and by 
 requiring that every applicant for admission shall have such 
 an acquaintance with the studies that he will be called upon 
 to teach, as will render it unnecessary for the Normal 
 Schools to do aught with these studies except for illustra- 
 
81 
 
 tion. Let these schools concentrate their strength upon 
 one thing ; let them endeavor to teach one subject with 
 its collaterals, thoroughly and philosophically, and they 
 will be much more likely to succeed — to achieve positive 
 and useful results for the cause of education, than if we 
 attempt to make them serve the purposes of a professional 
 school, a high school, or a college. Experience bears out 
 this statement : seminaries for teachers there have been in 
 which algebra and physics were thoroughly taught, but in 
 which little or nothing was ever done for the science of 
 education, and only something by way of illustration for 
 the art. 
 
 I have never known the attempt to attach to the IS'ormal 
 School an extended course of high classical and mathemat- 
 ical study — to meet with anything that ought for a moment 
 to be called success, without destroying the professional 
 character of the school. 
 
 It must be confessed that in the case of many schools it 
 would be difficult, and perhaps not expedient, to exclude 
 from the curriculum all that is not professional, directly or 
 indirectly. At present this condition of things can be most 
 nearly approached in those cities which support both a 
 High and a E^ormal School, and where the latter institution 
 derives its pupils mainly or entirely from the former. 
 
 Such a relation enables the Normal School to confine it- 
 self to its appropriate province, and furnishes it with pupils 
 properly prepared to enter upon professional work. 
 
 When it is considered desirable to extend the work of the 
 Normal School so that it shall prepare teachers not only 
 professionally, but otherwise, the curriculum of study will 
 of course depend upon what the student is preparing for, 
 as well as upon what he has done before entering the school. 
 
 If it be attempted to prepare fully for high schools, and 
 
 4* 
 
WB AXEBICAS HOKMAL SCHOOL CONTE^fTION. 
 
 similar institations, I see not how to avoid the ordinary four 
 years' college course, with all that is necessary as a prep- 
 aration, and the professional coarse besides. Taking the 
 papils from the very best of our grammar schools, the 
 work here indicated would require at least eight years of 
 time. Can a single institution accomplish all this labor as 
 advantageously as several of different grades ? I have taken 
 no pains to mark out a course of study covering this extent 
 of ground, because the work would, in the main, coincide 
 with that of existing institutions, and could be easily ar- 
 ranged by consulting their catalogues. 
 
 We come next to the consideration of that which is 
 usually spoken of as the theory and art of teaching — a 
 term which in this paper includes the whole science of 
 education, excepting only physical culture. Like all new 
 attempts, this subject has hitherto presented many diffi- 
 culties, and will undoubtedly present many more. 
 
 The science of education is only in its formative state. 
 Its principles have never been arranged and digested with 
 the care and precision we find in some departments of 
 knowledge hitherto more devotedly cultivated. 
 
 Not but that it would be quite possible, and compara- 
 tively easy, to frame a theory of education that should be 
 more or less complete in all its parts, and measurably satis- 
 factory to ourselves, perhaps ; but this is not the method of 
 building up sciences that has been most highly valued 
 since the time of Lord Bacon ; and nowhere ouirht our theo- 
 ries to be founded upon a more careful induction than in 
 this matter of education. 
 
 Every principle, before it is deemed trustworthy, should 
 be subjected to a rigorous process of verification, and the 
 system finally adopted should be the result deduced from 
 the experience of many, continued through many years. It 
 
^^ns. SS 
 
 slioiild be a gntdoal giowtii, die frut <tf a Tsmd aoad pa- 
 tient labor, carried on in tbe Ii«^t oi day and before aieB^ 
 ejes, and not a tbing tbat, like tbe ptopbel^ S'owd, grows 
 up in a nigbt. 
 
 In view of tbese &cts, it is witb ooB»deiable diSdeaee 
 tbat one approaches die d^aib of Ibis sabject, and in die 
 present pi^er nodung irill be auenpfed bejond die iadiea> 
 tkm of a conise wbidi appeals to bave been in some cases tol> 
 efablr snec^stfnL It may be ptese nl ed aoeae^rfiat js folWy»s : 
 
 Ibe Sd«ioe of Edacadon, based apon die PbilosopbT of 
 die Jiimd^ bodi j«c«nb and mimU, aad abo apott d^ 
 Science of Moiak. 
 
 Tbe Art of Teacbin^ indading oMtbods, and die piae- 
 tical application of die principles of die science already 
 aUaded to. Ibis undades moral as w^ as iatdlectaal cal^ 
 tare, and aims to fuaisb aaswots to sacb qaesdoiis as^ How 
 sball I devdop die power of obscrration in my papikt 
 How can I make d9Ska«it diinkers aad reasMieis of diemi 
 How can die princi|^es of integrily, of bonor, eoaseieii- 
 tioosness, of Hndness, of rsTerence Ifor God, ele^ be 
 strengdiaied in diemI and afeo to tbese : How can I best 
 teach Aridimetic, Geographr, Readings etc ! 
 
 A considefation of die kind of pei^on diat the teacbei 
 ought to be, the character be oaght to exhibit, or the qaak 
 ides be ought to possess — as an inqniry that mast precede 
 tlie consiclwation of— 
 
 The Art of GoTeming a School, inciwoiii^ :iie organixa- 
 tion., dasdficadon^ programme of daily exerdses;, modes of 
 pnmdtment, motives to be appealed to, etc^ etc 
 
 History of Edncation, and Educational Biogiapby, espe> 
 daily the latter, on account of its eibct in aioadng enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 School Laws, and the Tartous modes of superintending 
 
84: AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 and controlling the public schools in the difi'erent States, 
 and in some of the prominent cities of our country, and, 
 so far as practical, in foreign countries. 
 
 Practice in Teaching in an Experimental School, if possi- 
 ble, and at all events in the Normal School, with criticisms 
 and practical directions — the latter by the teacher, and the 
 former by both the teacher and the class. 
 
 There are various methods of accomplishing the work 
 here sketched that commend themselves to the judgment of 
 the thoughtful teacher, and may be used together or suc- 
 cessively. Books on educational topics are studied and 
 recited from in the same manner as ordinary text-books ; 
 other books of the same kind are used as reference books, 
 as are also encyclopedias, dictionaries, works on science, 
 historical and biographical works, gazetteers, Barnard's 
 Journal, etc. These reference books are freely used by the 
 students, and the results of the reading are sometimes given 
 to the class in the form of general exercises, which are con- 
 ducted on principles laid down in the science of education, 
 and the whole exercise is afterward criticised by the mem- 
 bers of the class and by the teacher, in respect to both mat- 
 ter and manner. For the purpose of more thoroughly 
 awakening the thoughts of the members of the class, and 
 keeping them in vigorous exercise, the teaching is done 
 mainly by questions. 
 
 In the criticisms, much stress is laid upon the philo- 
 sophical sequence of these questions, upon the clearness of 
 the statements, the ap»parent clearness of the pupil-teacher's 
 understanding of the subject, upon the promptness and life 
 exhibited by him, upon the suavity and dignity of his man- 
 ner, and upon the power with which he carried the class 
 with him. This furnishes excellent practice in teaching in 
 the Normal School. 
 
85 
 
 Another method that has been found efficient in the study 
 of this subject, is that of discussing in the class a topic 
 previously assigned, and requiring a written essay to be 
 afterward prepared by the students upon the same topic. 
 These essays are expected to express the views of the 
 writers after all the reading and thought they have been 
 able to give the subject, and in the preparation they are 
 allowed tO" use. as their judgment may dictate, the thoughts 
 presented in the discussion. This method possesses several 
 obvious advantages. 
 
 It promotes a habit of careful attention to what one hears 
 said, even when the subject of the discourse is something 
 other than the faults of one's neighbors. I will not stop to 
 discuss the importance of this habit, nor to inquire how 
 many, or what proportion of our church-goers and lecture- 
 hearers practice it with any degree of accuracy. 
 
 The exercise also tends to promote accurate habits of 
 thinking, of arranging and classifying facts and principles, 
 accustoming the pupil, as it does, to gather up the frag- 
 ments of knowledge presented in the discussions, and to 
 build them into a systematical whole. 
 
 How ofren does it happen that when there has been a dis- 
 cussion to which young people have listened, even though 
 the exercise has been under the charge of a teacher, and 
 many good thoughts have been uttered, and many import- 
 ant principles enunciated, and trains of reasoning pointed 
 out — how often does it happen, nevertheless, that for want 
 of this power of arranging, the students carry away very 
 little and perhaps nothing — that there remains in their 
 minds only a vague and general recollection of an interest- 
 ing conversation, but no distinct and positive appreciation 
 of the principles advanced or logical relations traced out ? 
 
 Again ; by this method the student is thrown upon his 
 
86 AMEBIC AN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 own resources, is compelled to read in various directions, 
 to consult various books, and to put together the scraps of 
 knowledge derived from various authors. He is compelled 
 to use books without assistance from his instructor, and to 
 use them like a rational being, that is, to think of what 
 he reads, and not to make himself a mere mental dyspep- 
 tic, swallowing all he finds, but unable to digest any- 
 thing. 
 
 By this method, too, by the preparation of these written 
 statements, the pupil becomes accustomed to accuracy of 
 expression. The importance of this habit, in an educational 
 point of view, can scarcely be over-estimated. It is one of 
 the marks of a scholar, and contributes greatly to accuracy 
 of thought. " Reading^'' says Lord Bacon, " maketh 2ifull 
 man, conversation maketh a ready man, and writing maketh 
 an exact man." To the teacher, the habit of being accurate 
 in expression is so necessary in the imparting of instruction, 
 that he needs to make use of every means in his power of 
 attaining it. 
 
 How^ can a child be taught to think accurately by a teach- 
 er whose language is vague and arribigiious f The most exact 
 and careful statements will frequently be misunderstood by 
 thoughtless children, but when the teaching becomes inex- 
 act and pointless, the whole seems almost o. farce. 
 
 Again ; this exercise gives facility in composition, more 
 particularly upon topics connected with education. There 
 are many reasons why this ought to be considered an essen- 
 tial qualification to every one proposing to become a teach- 
 er. So obvious are these reasons, that we will not weary 
 your patience with the enumeration of them. 
 
 And finally, the method we are discussing enables the 
 Normal instructor to judge more accurately and justly ot 
 the soundness of the pupil's opinions on matters relating to 
 
87 
 
 teaching than he could from oral recitations alone, not that 
 the latter can be dispensed with. 
 
 Oar teachers need to be not only " exact^'"^ but also 
 ^'' ready f* along with the accuracy acquired by practice in 
 writing, they need the promptness and confidence which 
 can be attained only by vigorous, wide-awake, oral recita- 
 tions. 
 
 Among the topics adapted to being treated in this way 
 may be mentioned the following : 
 
 1st. The nature of education. 
 
 2d. The necessity of making it universal, 
 
 3d. The order of succession in the development of the 
 faculties of children, and consequent arrangement of their 
 studies. 
 
 4th. The improvement of the senses, and of the power of 
 observation, and the best method of effecting it. 
 
 5th. The culture of the memory, and the best method of 
 effecting it. 
 
 6th. The culture of the reasoning powers, and the best 
 methods of promoting it. 
 
 7th. How to improve the taste and tlie imagination. 
 
 8th. How to promote the supremacy of the conscience. 
 
 9th. Organization of a school, including classification, 
 programme of daily exercises, etc. 
 
 10th. How to teach reading in primary and grammar 
 schools. 
 
 11th. How to conduct a recitation. 
 
 12th. The use of general exercises in school, and the best 
 method of conducting them. 
 
 13th. How the teacher may most effectually aid his 
 pupils in the formation of good moral habits. 
 
 To prepare essays on the above and similar topics, each 
 taking from eight to fifteen minutes in the reading, will 
 
88 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 require on the part of the pupil much useful thought, and 
 will greatly aid him in laying out beforehand a plan of his 
 operations as a teacher. Of course the essays must be crit- 
 ically examined by the instructor, both in respect to the 
 style and manner of treating the subject. Great pains 
 should be taken to make models of composition, as well as 
 correct expositions of the philosophy of teaching. 
 
 The last topic upon our general list is the critical study 
 of the English Language and some of its best literature, with 
 Phonetic Analysis, Elocution, etc. 
 
 This should also include the history of the English lan- 
 guage and literature, with some study of the prominent au- 
 thors of every period of its existence. And, in the exam- 
 ination of authors, something more should be done than 
 merely to read over the selections from them, and to apply 
 artificial definitions of the figures of speech, and an equally 
 artificial and unappreciated explanation of few of the allu- 
 sions. 
 
 The ground of every simile and metaphor should be point- 
 ed out, its heauty perceived and enjoyed, and ih.Qfo7'ce, as 
 well as th^facts^ of every allusion explained. 
 
 Thus, it seems to me, that the study of literature can be 
 made the means of thorough and solid mental discipline, as 
 well as oi" refining the taste and of expanding and invigor- 
 ating the imagination. 
 
 It may be thought an improper distinction is here made 
 between this subject and others which may be considered 
 as equally allied to the professionel studies of the teacher, 
 but we think that on mature thought it will be found that 
 the study of his mother-tongue is peculiarly necessary to 
 him. Language is in a special sense his instrument — the 
 instrument with which he is enabled to use other instru- 
 ments. 
 
89 
 
 As already stated, under another topic, accuracy of ex- 
 pression is indispensable to the instructor of youth, if he 
 would do his work well. And for us, what is accuracy of 
 expression but a correct use of this vigorous speech of ours? 
 And how can he be accurate in expression who does not 
 appreciate something of the power of this noble medium of 
 communication ? 
 
 The teacher needs every day a practical knowledge of the 
 force of words, and an appreciation oi minute shades of dif- 
 ference between one word and another. His every ex- 
 pression in school should be a model for elegance and for 
 fitness in conveying thought. And how shall he acquire 
 this power over language ? How shall he become so in- 
 spired with the genius of the English language that its 
 words and idioms shall spontaneously flow from his lips in 
 all their power and beauty? Evidently by studying thor- 
 oughly and critically the masters of the language, the Shak- 
 speares and Miltons, the Burkes and Addisons, who have 
 immortalized its forms and exalted it into a place by the 
 side of the languages of Homer, Cicero, and David ; by 
 studying their creations until he can in some degree fathom 
 the profound philosophy, soar to the noble conceptions, and 
 appreciate the grand utterances of these gifted sons of the 
 English muse, and illustrious apostles of English prose. 
 
 The course here sketched would furnish about one and a 
 half years of busy work for a college graduate of fair abil- 
 ities, and this is as long, perhaps, as it is desirable tliat the 
 special preparation of teachers should at present be made. 
 It is a much shorter time than is occupied for the same 
 purpose in other professions. But I doubt whether, at ])res- 
 ent at least, the professional studies of the teacher need so 
 much time as is given to those of the physician or lawyer. 
 
 These are a few not very well-arranged thoughts upon 
 
90 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 this exceedingly important subject. If their utterance 
 shall call forth from others better informed thoughts and 
 suggestions more full and more philosophical, such as will 
 aid in the practical solution of the problem proposed, no 
 one will more heartily rejoice at the result than the writer 
 of this brief paper. If the essay possesses sufhcient vitality 
 to be the occasion of arousing in some degree the abound- 
 ing life of some of the honored members of this Associa- 
 tion, it possesses all the merit that its author would ever 
 think of claiming for it. 
 
 The above papers behig read, Prof. Camp, of Connecticut, rose 
 to answer some of the objections stated by Prof. Wickersham, as 
 having been urged by some to model schools. He thought experi- 
 ence had decided the practicability and benefit to be derived from 
 the union of a Model with a Normal School ; though he was not 
 prepared to say that a good Normal School could not exist without 
 one. Yet he was of a decided opinion, alter having visited the 
 schools of this couritry to a considerable extent, that Model Schools 
 are a very great help to Normal Schools. 
 
 The first objection, that they interrupted the pupil-teachers, was 
 obviated by the course pursued at the Connecticut Normal School, 
 The model school there includes five hundred pupils of all grades, 
 sent there not only by people of the State, but from other States, 
 even from North Carolina and the boarding-schools of New York. 
 Each teacher who goes into the model school to teach has a special 
 work to perform, and he does it without interfering with his studies 
 or recitations in the Normal School. They teach in these classes, 
 under the eye of the Principal, and are expected to be responsible 
 for the government and instruction while there. Instead of being 
 ail int«-rruption to them, they actually prepare themselves more 
 thoroughly for the lessons they are to give in the Model School 
 than for those they recite in the Normal School. 
 
 The model schools are important helps to decide on the adapta- 
 tion of pupil-students for the places they are to fill afterward. I 
 am far from believing, said Mr. Camp, that there i^ no desire for a 
 professional training in the art of teaching among the young men 
 and young women of our country. The feeling is increasing c;very 
 
KEMAJRKS OF MK. N. T. ALLEN. 91 
 
 day, that there is a professional work to be done for the teacher as 
 well as the lawyer or the doctor. 
 
 Another objection was, that model schools suffer from a change 
 of teachers. We have no change except in case of sickness or 
 absence. A teacher is assigned to a class in the model school, 
 which he takes at the beginning of the term, and is with that class 
 during the term ; and the very best teaching given there is by the 
 pupils of the Normal School. I have heard persons, who have 
 been at the head of grammar schools in Boston, say that they have 
 heard better teaching than they could themselves give. They have 
 one particular class ; they have a pride to make that class as good 
 as possible. 
 
 More than half of those who come to our school have been 
 teachers before. Three of the teachers in the senior class now 
 are married ; four of them have taught high schools for years, and 
 have been in the Normal School a year and a half. It has been 
 found that these teachers thus trained are the best we have in our 
 State. More than one third of the teachers in Connecticut have 
 been trained in the Normal School. A gentlemen who took the 
 valedictory in his class in college and one of our graduates are 
 employed in the same institution in teaching, and the Normal 
 School grailuate receives twice the salary of the other, simply 
 because it is believed he possesses twice the power of the other. 
 
 Mr. N. T. Allex, of West Newton, Mass., one of the earliest 
 model school teachers, replied to some of the objections presented 
 by Prof. Wickersham. He thought the Normal School without a 
 model school was a partial one only. The great proportion — per- 
 haps nine tenths — of the failures of teachers from Normal Schools 
 is the result of the want of discipline, and this power can not be 
 tested where there is no model school. I know, said Mr. Allen, 
 that Mr. Marm, Father Pierce, and Mr. Tillinghast held to the idea 
 that where teachers could be tried and tested in the model school, 
 and could have the pupils under their entire control, they would be 
 more likely to succeed than those who had no such opportunity to 
 test themselves. While the model school was in existence at West 
 Newton, there were far more applications for admission than they 
 could receive ; and why they are not now connected with the Nor- 
 mal Schools of Massachusetts I do not understand. 
 
 Prof. Wickersham expressed his gratification at the answers 
 
92 AMERICAN NOEMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 given to the objections he had presented, not as his own, but those 
 which he often heard from others in Pennsylvania He said : I 
 propose to have a model school in connection with the Normal 
 School which we are to open at Millersville. Our pupils in the 
 Normal School will be expected to have a fair knowledge of the 
 branches before they enter. The first six months they will review 
 the common branches. The next year they will continue to study 
 some common branches, and take up some higher ones, and study 
 the theory of teaching for that year. Then, for the last six months, 
 the senior class will become the faculty of the model school. They 
 will go in there and do the teaching under the eye of a permanent 
 instructor ; but the class will be responsible for the working of the 
 school, for its government, and each individual, for his teaching. 
 If the senior class is engaged in studies at the time, they will pur- 
 sue their studies at other hours than those which require their 
 attention to the model school. 
 
 Mr. HoLLisTER, of Somerville, N. J., added his testimony to the 
 superiority of those teachers who had been trained in Normal 
 Schools, as shown in schools in Somerville. 
 
 The committee on resolutions pertninmg to Horace Mann were 
 instructed to prepare suitable acknowledgments of the courtesies 
 and hospitalities extended to the members of the Association. 
 
 A financial committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Oliver 
 and Wickersham and Dr. McJilton, and $27 50 were raised to meet 
 the expenses of the Association. 
 
 Adjourned. 
 
 THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 
 
 The Convention reassembled at 3 p.m. 
 
 Messrs. Crosby, Colburn, Smyth, Wickersham. and Dr. McJilton 
 were appointed a committee to embody in brief resolutions the gen- 
 eral conclusions reached in our discussions. 
 
 At the suggestion of the Presiderjt, the Association spent some 
 time in considering such questions as members were disposed to 
 offer, so as to make a practical exercise by answering the same as 
 far as possible. 
 
 Prof. Wickersham proposed the question to Prof. Phelps — 
 What methods are used in Normal Schools to teach teachers the 
 art of teaching? 
 
EEMAKKS OF PROF. PHELPS. 93 
 
 Prof. Phelps said : Our lessons commence with what may prop- 
 erly be called the Science of Education ; that is, we endeavor to 
 determine by lectures and conversational exercises what education 
 is. We endeavor to give our pupils a clear conception of the end 
 and objects of education. We lead them to look upon man as a 
 being possessing a three-fold nature — physical, intellectual, and 
 moral. For convenience, and I think instruction, it is well also to 
 consider him as possessing an emotional or affectional nature. He 
 possesses a heart and conscience. 
 
 We then endeavor to discover the means by which these various 
 departments of man are to be trained or drawn out, it being assumed 
 that the primary object of education is to develop and unfold the 
 powers and faculties with which he is endowed. Our idea is, that 
 the growth of the human being, physically, intellectually, and 
 morally, must proceed in accordance with laws as definite, many 
 of them as well defined, as the laws and processes which govern 
 physical nature. Our aim is to give a clear conception of these 
 laws. Then follows an attempt to show by a variety of methods 
 how these laws are to be most successfully applied to the develop- 
 ment of the powers and faculties of the huuian being. This s 
 done by lectures and conversational exercises. We also call in 
 such authorities as we can. We use Barnard's "Education in Eu- 
 rope," which IS a complete encyclopedia in regard to all depart- 
 ments of education. W e endeavor to study the theory of education 
 as viewed by other nations. We follow that with an examination 
 of school machinery, examine systems adopted in Europe as well 
 as in our country. After a time has been given to this theoretical 
 instruction, we commence the practice. 
 
 We assume that the first essays in practice should be under the 
 constant supervision of a practical eye. Then we have the teach- 
 ing of the Normal School class, in which the class is practiced 
 upon. Finally, the practice culminates in the experimental school, 
 in which the entire business of instructing and governing the pupils 
 is thrown upon the Normal pupils. 
 
 We endeavor in the Normal School, I should have said, to take 
 up each branch of knowledge, and ascertain what are its educa- 
 tional uses. We take Arithmetic, for instance, and ask what it is 
 suited to accomplish, what faculties it is suited to develop. So we 
 consider the uses of grammar, geography, drawing, etc., asking 
 
94 REMARKS OF PROFS. WICKERSHAM AND BIGELOW. 
 
 what faculties of mind or emotions of the soul they affect, and how 
 they affect them. 
 
 Then, again, we consider these branches in another aspect, and 
 ask what is the natural order of developing arithmetic, or grammar, 
 or any other branch of study. 
 
 Prof. Phei[)s' time having expired, he proposed the same question 
 to Prof. Wickersham which he had given to him. 
 
 Prof. WicKERSHAM Said that in his school all except the junior 
 and senior class meet in what he called the Teachers' Class, each 
 day. On one day there may be a lecture on the philosophy of 
 teaching. The members of the class take notes of it as it is given 
 slowly. The next day we review these notes, and the next we 
 make a recitation of it. An opportunity to examine books is given 
 at the same time. The whole course is divided into four divisions, 
 the first relating to the principles or philosophy of teaching, the 
 second to methods of teaching the various branches, commencing 
 with the alphabet, and going on to other branches. And in this 
 connection we not only consider the methods, but discuss the rea- 
 sons for adopting one rather than another. 
 
 Then we take up what we call school economy, organization, 
 methods of hearing recitations, etc. The last part of the course we 
 occupy with subjects relating to school government. These are the 
 discussions on the lectures. Then they are reviewed in classes. 
 
 Prof. Phelps — Will you be kind enough to state in the form (»f 
 propositions what you consider some of the fundamental principles 
 of education ? 
 
 Prof. WiCKEKSHAM — That is a pretty hard question. I think 
 that the fundamental idea of education is that of development, 
 growth. I think the Creator conterred upon us the ability to 
 improve ourselves, and that the fundamental idea would be that of 
 drawing out this ability, and putting it in exercise. I think the 
 powers of the mind are such as the gentleman himself has indi- 
 cated. 
 
 Prof. G. N. BiGELOw, of Framingham, Mass., was next called up 
 by Prof. Phelps. He said his practice had been, particularly in 
 the last term of the classes, to present the matter of instruction in 
 the art of teaching more in detail. After a few exercises, certain 
 works are placed in the hands of the pupils, and certain topics are 
 assigned to them for examination. We meet them and discuss 
 
\ B R A /.^ 
 
 VNfVERs?. 
 
 KEMAKKS OF MR. EMERSON. 95 
 
 them, requiring the pupils to state the author's views, so as to know 
 whether they understand them ; and then if they dissent from the 
 views of the author, any or all of them, they state the grounds of 
 dissent and give their own views. 
 
 After going through the different topics discussed by different 
 writers on education, we take up the topics which have been taught 
 during the previous term, and discuss the methods which the teach- 
 ers have pursued in teaching, and inquire how each individual would 
 conduct his own school. There will be a variety of methods, and 
 these methods are discussed, and the principles that underlie them 
 are tested. After spending a week or two in this way, we pass to 
 methods of teaching the alphabet, reading, spelling, geography, etc. 
 Then we consider the various school laws of the State. 
 
 Prof. Phelps asked Prof. Bigelow what method he pursued in 
 forming moral character — how are teachers prepared to give moral 
 instruction in the best way. 
 
 Prof. Bigelow — That is one of the most difficult things. A per- 
 son must be, in every sense, what he would have his scholars be- 
 come, and act out and live out what they ought to be. I do not 
 believe it possible for one who has not these elements to train one 
 to them. I have seen some individuals upon whom, taking the class 
 as a whole, I had tried to bring some influences, with especial ref- 
 erence to drawing out and developing that nature in them ; and 
 those efforts did not prove as successful as I hoped they would. 
 Therefore I am not prepared to state what is the best method of 
 doing that which seems to me to be the most difficult thing to ac- 
 complish. 
 
 Hon. Geo. B Emerson was next called up with reference to the 
 same question. He considered the moral training by teachers their 
 most important work. The moral nature of man is as susceptible as 
 ^ny part of his nature, but it is one of the slowest. He did not claim 
 any merit in doing it himself. He did not consider his own authority 
 in teaching the great laws of a spiritual life as binding in any de- 
 gree. He simply took the great laws of the Saviour and endeav- 
 ored to explain them in a few words, day after day. He had felt 
 for many years that that was the most important work he had to do, 
 and that was the highest point of his responsibility. He felt that 
 they were immortal beings who were under his influence, and he 
 would have to give an account of what he did, and therefore he felt 
 
96 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVf:NTION. 
 
 bound to appeal continually to the great doctrines of the Saviour and 
 of the Apostles. 
 
 I thank God that I am permitted to believe that this constant en- 
 deavor — sincere and constant it has been — to elevate the moral per- 
 ceptions and warm the moral aspirations, has been, by the blessing 
 of God, effectual in some degree — effectual always. I believe the 
 teacher who acts under the responsibility of his position never can 
 utter and make his own the words of the Great Teacher, and en- 
 deavor to bring them to the hearts and consciences of young people 
 without an effect. He must, however, do what he can to make the 
 life not inconsistent with the high standard toward which he is 
 urging his pupils. But I believe if any teacher who wishes to 
 teach the great principles of human duty wil' take the words of the 
 Saviour day after day, morning after morning, as an accompani- 
 ment to that prayer which I trust every sincere worker in the 
 school-room always uses, and endeavors to enforce those words and 
 show their divine beauty, their infinite authority, and, as well as he 
 can, lay them before children, I know, sir, they will have an effect ; 
 they can not but have an effect. They are the words given us 
 with which to do this great work ; nothing else under heaven can 
 do it. 
 
 Here is a great truth in regard to human character ; all that is 
 evil is noisy and continually putting itself forward ; all that is good 
 and true is quiet and still in its influence. 
 
 Here is a great lesson which seems to be intended for teachers 
 alone almost ; that great divine injunction of the Apostle, " Be not 
 overcotne of evil, but overcome evil with good." Now, I say to 
 my children, you are continually exposed to evil — in yourselves 
 and those about you. You are to overcome it — overcome it with 
 good. 
 
 To teachers I would say, you are to overcome ignorance. How 1 
 With all forms of knowledge. You are to deal with obstinacy. 
 How are you to overcome it? By ob««tinacy ? No ; obstinacy in 
 the teacher will only ^t^enothen the obstinacy of the pupil. You 
 are to overcome it only by sweetness and kindness — inexhaustible 
 kindness — that will do it. It has been tried. Evil can not be 
 overcome with evil ; it can be overcome with good. 
 
 Mr. President, one of my friends for whom I have the greatest 
 affection and admiration, has often used language like this : " The 
 
REPORTS OF STATES. 97 
 
 great teachers of mankind, Plato, Confucius, and Socrates, taught 
 so and so." I confess, it almost seems to me to be like profanity. 
 I confess, I delight to read Plato, but when I read the finest pas- 
 sages of Plato, and turn thence to the Sermon on the Mount, to the 
 doctrines of Christ or his Apostles, it seems to me as if 1 had come 
 out of the mists and darkness of a lower world into the brightness 
 of a glorious region where all is light. I would look to all sources 
 wheresoever they are to be found for aid in this work of building 
 up the human character. I believe every one who comes to the 
 work with a proper, teachable spirit will find in a few pages of the 
 New Testament more aid than in all the writings of uninspired men 
 that have come down to us. 
 
 Mr. Emerson strenuously urged that while moral education is 
 more attended to than it has been, much greater effort should be 
 made to elevate the moral nature. So far as the education of the 
 intellect is concerned, said he, much is done ; but it is a terrible 
 fact that, with regard to the two highest parts of our nature, very 
 little or nothing is done. 
 
 Mr. Ogden, of Ohio, added his testimony to what had just been 
 said by Mr. Emerson. He thought the best processes to educate 
 a child physically are the best to educate him intellectually, and 
 that the best to educate him physically and intellectually are the 
 best to educate him religiously and morally. There is no antag- 
 onism ; but all attempts to separate science and religion are ruin- 
 ous. They were made to go hand in hand, the mistress and the 
 handmaiden. Science, without religion, would be cold-hearted in- 
 fidelity ; religion, without science, would be narrow-hearted bigotry. 
 Every lesson in arithmetic, and grammar, and geography should 
 not onlv make our children wiser, but better. Every lesson should 
 point upward to maii's higher and holier destiny. All our instruc- 
 tion ought to be in moral truth. When we go before our pupils, 
 armed with these truths, our teaching will have some effect. 
 Nothing but the religion of Jesus Christ is to reform the world. 
 
 REPORTS OF STATES. 
 
 Reports were then called for from delegates from States where 
 
 Normal Schools have been e^tablished as to the results of those 
 
 institutions upon the cause of education. Massachusetts was the 
 
 first State called, for which Mr. Dickinson, of the Westfield Nor- 
 
 5 
 
98 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 mal School, responded. The number of students at the Westfield 
 school has been increasing for some years, and there are now one 
 hundred and fifty. The standard for admission has been gradually 
 raised, so that some are rejected for want of qualification. One 
 reason for the increased number of students is the increasing de- 
 mand for Normal School graduates as teachers. All those who 
 pass the course in such a way as to enable us to recommend them, 
 have constant employment. The number of applications for teach- 
 ers exceeds the supply. The first families in the place throw open 
 their residences as boarding-places for the students. 
 
 We had a model school which is now given up, and I do not 
 know that the Normal School is injured thereby. 
 
 The President — In what form did that model school exist ? 
 Mr. Dickinson — It was one of the public schools of the town. 
 The President — On what account was it given up 1 
 Mr. Dickinson — The relations between the authorities of the 
 district and the Normal School were not entirely pleasant. 
 Dr. McJiLTON — Are the sexes taught together ? 
 Mr. Dickinson — They are. 
 
 Mr. Ariel Parish, of Springfield — What is the substitute for 
 the model school ? 
 
 Mr. Dickinson — Instruction is given by topics, and the class of 
 teachers recite in the same manner in which they would have their 
 pupils recite. The student recites without questions, in the form 
 of a teaching exercise before the class, who may ask questions, and 
 he is called to illustrate the principles brought out by the topic 
 under consideration. It is requested that things shall go before 
 names ; all go through the process together, and all arrive at the 
 same conclusion at the same time. 
 
 The President — Do you have what are called teaching exer- 
 cises ? 
 
 Mr. Dickinson — We do. 
 
 The President. — Do you think those really a substitute for a 
 model school in which little children are to be taught ? 
 
 Mr. Dickinson— I think we have a pretty safe guide in this 
 matter, because the teachers refer to their own consciousness with 
 reference to the manner in which we must derive our knowledge. 
 I think the principles can be settled even better than by experi- 
 ments upon individuals. I think that the teavhers who have gone 
 
REMARKS OF MR. EMERSON AND OTHERS. 99 
 
 out since the model school was abolished have had as much success 
 as those who went out before. 
 
 Mr. Emerson — Would not the gentleman from Westfield con- 
 sider a model school like that at New Britain, Connecticut, profit- 
 able ? 
 
 Mr. Dickinson — I think the school in New Britain, with its 
 model school, is considered a success. I think it might be an ad- 
 vantage, so far as testing the students' power of managing a school 
 or governing it is concerned. 
 
 Mr. Northrop said it was an important element in the practice 
 at the Westfield Normal School that the members were trained to 
 put themselves in the stand-point of the child, to be literally child- 
 like. One of the class becomes the teacher for the hour, while the 
 rest " play the child," and aim to think and speak as children ; to 
 state difficulties and objections as beginners would do, and thus by 
 recalling their own early impressions and experiences, prepare 
 themselves to appreciate the peculiarities and necessities of the 
 juvenile mind and heart. T^e difficulty of understanding little 
 children is only exceeded by its importance. The success of the 
 teacher depends very much upon his quick discernment of charac- 
 ter. With this rare and happy faculty, he can readily adapt the 
 countless varieties of method and of motive to the endless diversi- 
 ties of character, and this power of reading the juvenile mind and 
 heart is most readily acquired by the habit of reproducing our own 
 early feelings, associations, and experience. 
 
 The President — We have endeavored to subject the matter to 
 all sorts of tests here. We have the teaching exercise, in which 
 the teacher is to conceive his class to be little children, and the uni- 
 form testimony of those who teach is, that it is far more difficult to 
 conceive of those of their own age being children, and to teach 
 them as such, than to teach a class of real children. I think the 
 instruction of a class by its own members is a very valuable adjunct 
 indeed. 
 
 Mr. Dickinson — The uniform testimony of our pupils is, that it 
 is much more difficult to teach those who are acting in the place of 
 children than to teach actual children. 
 
 Prof. D. N. Camp, of Connecticut, said the school at New Brit- 
 ain had been established ten years. The condition on which it 
 was established was, that a model school must be connected with 
 
100 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 it. The number in the Normal School last year was 266, of whom 
 170 were females and 96 males, all taught together. The arrange- 
 ment of the school contemplates three years' instruction. Some 
 remain during the whole course, but many do not. One class is al- 
 ways at liberty to instruct in the model school. There were 300, 
 last term, in the model school. That school is graded ; it has cost 
 much, but it is considered of incalcuable advantage to the teachers, 
 and also as a model for the teachers of the State, so that they may 
 visit and learn the best system of instruction. There the pupils of 
 the Normal School can go and ascertain for themselves whether 
 they can govern and teach a class successfully and secure their 
 respect. The teachers themselves have felt that to be a very im- 
 portant thing. 
 
 The pupils of the junior class in the Normal School go and ob- 
 serve the model school, during the first term, without doing any- 
 thing or taking any notes. Then the next term they teach the 
 lower class. There is no change of teachers in the class. One 
 who goes through a course of thre» years, spends four terms as a 
 teacher of a class. There is a great advantage in having children 
 to teach rather than playing children. 
 
 Mr. Ogden, of Ohio, inquired how the art of government could 
 be imparted well without the class of a model school ? 
 
 Mr. Dickinson — The theory of government must be based upon 
 a knowledge of the nature of the will and the susceptibilities. I 
 contend that a teacher in a model school does not have a real school 
 under his charge. The responsibility of a teacher of a model 
 school is not that which he will feel when he comes to manage a 
 real school. The model-school teaching is not real life ; it is play, 
 so far as that is concerned. 
 
 It is impossible for our model schools to compete with the schools 
 of the State. 
 
 Prof. D. P. CoLBURN, for Rhode Island, said, the Normal School 
 of that State was located first in the city of Providence, in 1854. 
 It was removed to Bristol in 1857. That was unfortunate, as Prov- 
 idence is the center of travel for the State. More than half the 
 people of the State can go to Providence every day and return at 
 night. This had a great influence on the attendance at the .school. 
 At Bristol the attendance has not been as large as it was at Provi- 
 dence. We had, during the last year, about 100. The fstudents 
 
REMARKS OF PROFS. WICKER8HAM AND SMYTH. 101 
 
 seem interested in the work of the school, and iu the work to which 
 they are going. 
 
 We have no model school, and I can not say now that I desire 
 one.' I have had some experience at Bridgewater, and I believe it 
 was regarded by the principal a;nd teachers as not successful. 1 
 think the interference with the studies of the pupils more than 
 counterbalances its advantages. 
 
 Our school is for both sexes. During the past term, from one 
 fourth to one third were males. We have found no necessity for 
 rules more than we have in any well-regulated society. I would 
 not have the sexes separated. I have seen no evil from the pres- 
 ent course, but, on the contrary, much good. 
 
 Prof. WicKERSHAM, for Pennsylvania, said: We have no State 
 Normal Schools, though we have a number of private ones which 
 are doing the work that ought to be done by State schools. We 
 have a Normal School law, by which the State is divided into 
 twelve Normal School districts, and it is provided that there may 
 be one in each. 
 
 The Legislature did not think it expedient to establish the 
 schools, but merely divided the State into districts, supposing that 
 private means would be found to establish them. They will have 
 no direct appropriation from the State, at least until after they have 
 been organized. Each school is required to have ten acres of 
 ground, a hall that will seat one thousand persons, apparatus, and a 
 library, and boarding accommodations for three hundred students, 
 with school accommodations for the same. The pupils are required 
 to board in the buildings, or in connection with the^ school. The 
 schools are connected with the State administration in several 
 ways. No examination for giving diplomas can be held unless the 
 State Superintendent is present. • 
 
 We hope to build up a profession of teaching in Pennsylvania, 
 and that when one receives a State diploma he will not be exam- 
 ined again anywhere in the State. Among the features of this 
 law, a model school of one hundred pupils is required, and it is 
 contemplated to put it entirely under the control of the superin- 
 tendent of the Normal School. He may select his own pupils, 
 taking them anywhere, and charge the*m little or nothing, as he 
 pleases. 
 
 Professor Smyth, of Colu;nbus, Ohio, State Superintendent of 
 
102 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONTENTION. 
 
 Schools, said : We have no State Normal School in Ohio. The 
 friends of education have for years urged upon our General Assem- 
 blies the importance of establishing such an institution: but nothing 
 has thus far been accomplished. 
 
 A few years ago, Mr. Cyrus McNeely, of Harrison County, with 
 exemplary liberality, donated a building and grounds to our State 
 Teachers' Association^ to be used for the purpose of a Normal 
 School. The Association accepted the property, and organized a 
 school under the charge of my friend Mr. Ogden, who is now pres- 
 ent. For some time the school was prosperous, but it soon became 
 evident that an association of teachers was not a body competent 
 to manage extensive financial interests. The trustees were teach- 
 ers, located at points far distant from each other. They could sel- 
 dom meet, however pressing the business which demanded their 
 attention. Needed funds were not forthcoming, and the school was 
 suspended. The property, I understand, has reverted to its former 
 owner. Through the energy and liberality of Mr. McNeely, the 
 school has resumed operations. A most excellent principal has 
 been employed, and other teachers, as I suppose. But the Asso- 
 ciation is no longer connected with the institution. 
 
 There is another Normal School in our State, located at Leb- 
 anon, and called the Southwestern Normal School. It is, I believe, 
 an individual enterprise, being controlled by its principal, Mr. Al- 
 fred Holbrook, who is known throughout the land as a most earnest 
 friend of learning, and a successful teacher. That school is doing 
 a good work for the part of the State in which it is located. 
 
 And there are several other seminaries in the State which pay 
 special attention to the training of teachers. All these schools are 
 valuable. But schools like these do not meet all our necessities. 
 Dependent almost entirely on tuition fees for their support, it is not 
 reasonable to suppose that they can make and execute rigid rules 
 of order as can institutions not thus dependent. They must be less 
 strict concerning admission and continuance in schools. Pupils 
 will be more likely to drop in at irregular times, and leave on a sud- 
 den, if it shall please them so to do. 
 
 I therefore hope that oijr State will, ere long, establish a school 
 of high character, adequate to all our demands. While we can but 
 rejoice on account of what we have, we can but regret that we have 
 not all we need 
 
KEMAEKS OF PROF. PHELPS. 103 
 
 Prof. HovEY spoke for Illinois. He said the movers in getting 
 up the Normal School in Illinois desired two things — money to build 
 with, and to pay the teachers. They succeeded in getting a per- 
 petual appropriation of the interest of $100,000. Competition as 
 to the location led Bloomington to offer $141,000, and the building 
 is being erected there, and will be completed in about a year. It 
 is located on a site of sixty acres, and adjoining it is another hun- 
 dred acres given by the citizens of Bloomington, on which we shall 
 build an agricultural and mechanical department. 
 
 The school has been in operation two years in temporary rooms. 
 The compensaiion is liberal to all who are engaged in the school, 
 and the feeling in regard to the school is liberal. The people of 
 Illinois allow the teachers to do pretty much as they think best. 
 We have in the school one hundred and fifty of each sex ; we do 
 not think of separating the sexes in Illinois. There are four male 
 teachers in the school. 
 
 The President — Will Mr. Hovey please state why it is called 
 a University. 
 
 Mr. HovEY — There was a university fund unappropriated, and 
 in order to get the proceeds of that fund we had to establish a uni- 
 versity. (Laughter.) But we do not contemplate that it shall be 
 simply one department, so that it shall become, instead of a Normal 
 School, the University of Illinois. We mean that it shall be a 
 university in fact as well as in name. 
 
 Mr. Silas Betts, of Niles, Mich., spoke for Michigan, though he 
 was not connected with the Normal School, .which is at Ypsilanti, 
 and he was not acquainted with the details respecting it. He had 
 adopted a plan of makmg teachers of the more advanced scholars 
 of the school with which he was connected. 
 
 Prof. Phelps spoke of the New Jersey Normal School. There 
 is invested, at the present time, in buildings, furniture, etc., $120,000 
 for Normal School purposes. The two buildings at Trenton, with 
 furniture complete, have cost between $70,000 and $80,000. There 
 is, in addition to the establishment here, a preparatory school at 
 Beverly, the buildings of which have cost from $30,000 to $40,000. 
 It is the fruit of the liberality of one of the citizens of New Jersey, 
 Mr. Paul Farnum, of Beverly. He has donated the buildings, 
 grounds, a library, and $20,000. He also paid the expense of 
 working the institution for one year. It is for the purpose of doing 
 
104: AMERICAlf NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 some of the preliminary work of training necessary before entering 
 the Normal School. It is also designed to test those who desire 
 to enter the Normal School, and to prevent those from entering who 
 may safely be pronounced unfit, for any reason, to become teachers. 
 The State appropriates $1,200, so that it has an annual income of 
 $2,400. Pupils pay a tuition to some extent. The direction of 
 the school is submitted to the Trustees of the State Normal School. 
 Both of the schools are for both sexes. 
 
 The institution here numbered last year, for one term, 120, and 
 for one term, 110. 
 
 As to the results, I think I may say, that to the direct influence 
 of the school a greater advance has been made in the cause of pub- 
 lic education in New Jersey, wiihin the past four years, than within 
 the preceding fourteen or fifteen years. We can not begin to sup- 
 ply the demand for Normal-trained teachers. I have this day appli- 
 cations for fifteen teachers, and I do not know where one of them 
 will come from. The people will have no other if they can obtain 
 them. The sentiment is becoming quite general, in places where 
 Normal School teachers have been, that this school must be de- 
 pended on for the supply. 
 
 One explanation of the great, direct success of the school in New 
 Jersey is, that the public schools are very poor, and there was even 
 a greater proportion of poor teachers here than in our sister States. 
 The movement for popular education is very modern in this State. 
 We have no such thing as a system of Common Schools. The 
 great mass of our country schools are taught only so long as the 
 public money will carry them on, and even then the money goes to 
 the pockets of teachers who are very incompetent indeed. 
 
 This practice, I am told, prevails in many places. The town 
 superintendent actually pays to the poor man, who does not send 
 his children to school, the proportion of money to which his chil- 
 dren are entitled for their education. That state of facts prevails 
 to a considerable extent. Our laws are in a crude condition, but 
 we dare not progress too fast. 
 
 Mr. RoWE inquired what was the preference of the people — for 
 male or female teachers ? 
 
 To which Prof. Phelps replied, that the preference was for male 
 teachers, he was sorry to say. 
 
 In this connection. Gen. Oliver stated, that in Lawrence, Mass., 
 
REMARKS OF HON. HENRY BARNARD. 105 
 
 out of forty-four teachers, only four were males. All the mathe- 
 matics in the High School is taught by a lady. 
 
 THURSDAY EVENING SESSION. 
 
 The first business was the consideration of the place of the next 
 meeting. Rev. Anson Smyth invited the Association to meet at 
 Columbus. 
 
 Prof. Crosby suggested the plan of holding a separate meeting 
 triennially and holding the other meetings annually in connection 
 with one of the National Associations. 
 
 Hon. Henry Barnard invited the Association to meet at Mad- 
 ison, Wis., in connection with the National Teachers' Association. 
 
 Dr McJiLTON advocated separate meetings, when it was voted 
 that the place of the next meeting be left to the decision of the 
 councilors. 
 
 Hon. Henry Barnard, of Wisconsin, was called on to give an 
 account of the state of education there. He said : Wisconsin has 
 a school fund, which will amount to at least $4,000,000. There is 
 also a university fund, which amounts to about $312,000, and will 
 probably reach $400,000. There are other funds arising from the 
 sale of swamp lands, as they are called, one fourth of which are to 
 be given to Normal instruction, and to be under the control of a 
 Board of Regents of the Normal Schools. The Normal regents 
 expect their agent [Mr. Barnard] to hold teachers' institutes, con- 
 duct Normal classes in the colleges, academies, and high schools of 
 the State. 
 
 I am expected, said Mr. B., to hold, in connection with the Col- 
 lege and Normal classes, an examination after the manner and for 
 the same general purpose that competitive examinations are held in 
 England to decide upon the qualification of those who seek for posts 
 of trust in the service of the country as clerks, etc. I propose to 
 bring that principle to bear upon the institutions that exist between 
 thti schools and the university, and that the effect will be to raise 
 the standard of those institutions. Mr. B. here spoke of the need 
 of a change in the manner of appointment to posts of trust in the 
 departments of the government, and expressed the hope that they 
 might be made as the result of competitive examinations. 
 
 It is proposed to establish at Madison a. Normal School. My 
 
 6* 
 
106 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 plan will be to conduct that somewhat differently from the one 
 established here. I hold to the general views expressed by Dr. 
 Wines today. My plan will be to give full employment to a corps 
 of able teachers ; to have a three months' term in the spring, and 
 another in the winter, and let the teachers hold institutes in the 
 intervals in aay city or town in the State, having all the work 
 planned for them beforehand. 
 
 Another instrument which we shall use there is the press, and 
 also the district library. We hope to place, within two or three 
 years, twenty-five or thirty volumes on education within the reach 
 of the teachers of the State. It is a mournful fact that so few pro- 
 fessed teachers have as many as six volumes on education in their 
 libraries. 
 
 Mr. B. closed by impressing on teachers present the importance 
 of a more intimate acquaintance with educational literature. 
 
 The Committee on Resolutions reported the following series, 
 which was adopted without debate. 
 
 Resolved, That the work of the Normal School is peculiar in its character, 
 and that this work can not be performed by other institutions of learning, how- 
 ever high their rank or great their excellence. 
 
 Resolved, That the claims of the Normal School to support and influence rest 
 upon this peculiarity, and not upon any depreciation of other institutions within 
 their appropriate spheres, and that the Normal School can not properly come 
 into competition with any other institution. 
 
 Resolved, That the object of the Normal School is strictly professional, viz., 
 the direct preparation of teachers for their great work ; and that it claims as 
 appropriate to itself all those exercises, theoretical and practical, and only those 
 which are requisite for this preparation. 
 
 Resolved, That the special work of the Normal School is so great that a just 
 economy and proper division of labor require that it should perform as little 
 work as possible that can be rightly performed. by other institutions ; and that 
 it is therefore exceedingly desirable that pupils should not be received until 
 they have attained such maturity of mind and amount of knowledge that they 
 can at once enter profitably upon the proper professional course of the school. 
 
 Resolved, That while the labors of the Normal School must be chiefly di- 
 rected, for the present, to the right preparation of common school teachers, it 
 ought not to omit from its plan the professional education of teachers of any 
 grade ; and that it is important that it should extend and elevate, as rapidly 
 as the condition aiid demands of the community will permit, its efforts and in- 
 fluence. 
 
 Resolved, That education, as based upon the nature of man, and having fixed 
 principles, is truly and eminently a science ; that, as having appropriate 
 methods for securing noble ends, it is no less truly and eminently an art ; and 
 
BEMARKS OF GEN. OLIVER. 107 
 
 that this science and art can be taught and learned no less directly and effi- 
 ciently than the other sciences and arts ; and that therefore the direct profes- 
 sional education of teachers is as appropriate, and certainly as important, as 
 that of the members of other professions. 
 
 Resolved, That this education of teachers should not only \^ theoretical, but 
 also practical ; and that, to this end, there should either be a school of observa- 
 tion and practice in immediate connection with the Normal School, and under the 
 same Board of Control, or that there should be in other ways equivalent oppor- 
 tunities for observation and practice. 
 
 Resolved, That all educators, especially in the Normal School, should practi- 
 cally, no less than in theory, regard education as applying to the whole nature 
 and constitution of man — body, mind, and heart ; and that they should espe- 
 cially recognize the pre-eminent importance of moral and religious education. 
 
 Resolved, That, in behalf of the friends of education, the thanks of this Asso- 
 ciation be tendered to the Legislature of New Jersey, to Paul Farnum, Esq., of 
 Beverly, and to the citizens of Trenton, for the most liberal and magnificent 
 endowment provided for the interests of education by their noble buildings for 
 the Normal School in this place and Beverly, and for their kindness and liberal- 
 ity in opening them for our accommodation. 
 
 Gen. Oliver, from the Committee on Resolutions, with reference 
 to the life, and labors, and death of Horace Mann, reported the 
 following : 
 
 Resolved, That while bowing with unfeigned humility and submission to 
 this inscrutable Providence, we can not but mourn, with the deepest grief, that 
 in the midst of usefulness, and while earnestly and successfully fulfilling a 
 great mission, he was called away from his labors and from the midst of asso- 
 ciates who intensely realized and valued the power of his encouragement and 
 support. 
 
 Resolved, That as an efficient friend and successful laborer in the cause of 
 education in all its diversified manifestations, especially in the introduction 
 and development of the system of Normal Schools, he laid the friends of the 
 cause under deep and lasting obligations ; and that in lamenting the loss of so 
 valued a leader, they can best evince their gratitude for his zeal and success by 
 greater earnestness and efficiency in the same cause themselves. 
 
 Re-oohed, That these resolutions be entered on the records of the Associa- 
 tion, and that a copy be sent to the family of Mr. Mann, as an expression of 
 our sympathy for the great loss which they themselves and the country have- 
 sustained in his death. 
 
 Getj. H. K. Oliver — My opportunities of acquaintance with Mr. 
 Mann were not so large as those of my friend, who has so truly and 
 justly measured out the character and life of our deceased friend. 
 But I happened to be thrown into connection with him in the early- 
 struggles in the cause of education in Massachusetts, and I know 
 the discouragements he met with and the indomitable courage with 
 which he overcame them. 
 
108 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 The secret of Mr. Mann's true greatness — and he was truly great 
 — lay in that one thing, his unselfishness. If it was ever my for- 
 tune to fall in with a man perfectly unselfish, it appears to me that 
 Horace Mann Was that person. Any man who has read the his- 
 tory of nations and men, knows that selfishness is the general char- 
 acteristic. Kings have been selfish ; princes, with hearts so hard, 
 that, like Othello's, when they struck it, it hurt their hand. Men 
 of prominent, overshadowing selfishness have marked the day and 
 signalized the time in which they lived. But not so did he. Emi- 
 nently forgetful of himself, he labored for others. But those men 
 with whom he was connected are those who get the hatred too 
 often and too surely of their fellow. We in Massachusetts remem- 
 ber the great struggle into which he was compelled to enter. We 
 remember not only the assailants, but the mode and manner of the 
 assault. Those of us who refused then, though urged to partici- 
 pate in it, and assail Mr. Mann, derived the benefit of our caution 
 and our prudence. We saw — we knew we saw — the error those 
 committed who were associated with us as teachers in Massachu- 
 setts at that time, and we knew that, by continuing our labors, we 
 should secure to the cause of education the certainty of success. 
 
 Sir, I came into close relationship with Mr. Mann during the 
 time of that contest, and I know {something of his feelings, some- 
 thing of the depth to which that over-sensitive nature was wound- 
 ed, and I have never wondered that when he struck out in defense 
 of the cause, he struck blows that few had the power of withstand- 
 ing ; for though he was individually assailed, 't was the cause that 
 he rose to defend, and which he succeeded in defending. 
 
 Now, that class of men who are unselfish, only one of whom has 
 exhibited it on earth in all its purity, must expect to encounter ob- 
 stacles, and it is no evidence of a want of purity in them that they 
 are assailed. I should rather pity the man who never had an 
 enemy. 
 
 Akiel Parish, Esq., of Springfield — I do not deem it necessary 
 to add a word at this time, because more should be said. I believe 
 what has been said has been well said, and it is all deserved. I 
 rise mainly because the eastern part of our State has spoken, and I 
 do not feel satisfied to sit still and have it appear that no other part 
 of the State is interested in this matter. 
 
 Sir, I am here to-night because of the influence of Horace 
 
EEMARKS OF ME. PABISH. 109 
 
 Mann. As I look back during the past twenty years, I can trace 
 his influence in all my course. I do not mean to say that it is 
 wholly through his influence ; but had he not taken the course he 
 did, and exerted the influence he did on the cause of education in 
 our State, my position would have been very diflferent from what it 
 is to-night. 
 
 Nearly twenty years since I saw his venerable form rise up in a 
 country church where now is planted one of his institutions, the 
 Normal School of Westfield, Mass. I never shall forget the im- 
 pression he made upon my mind ; never shall forget the first stim- 
 ulus I received from him at that time, and which was continued, as 
 I have read his record ever since. And as I look down the track 
 of time from this day to that, I see the marks he has made, and 
 they rise up before me as the traces of no other man do rise up. 
 
 How long is it since we have seen our papers teeming with eulo- 
 giums of that truly great man, Rufus Choate ? The bar and other 
 associations have assembled and bestowed upon him all the praises 
 that language could bestow ; yet I ask you what Rufus Choate has 
 done ? He has done what few men could do in his profes.sion of 
 the law. He was a great man man by nature, and he cultivated 
 his nature to a great extent. He went into his profession with all 
 possible ardor ; he read, and studied, and exerted himself as few 
 men ever did, and he attained success that few men did. But what 
 wa!s it 1 Why, he engaged in every suit presented on one side or 
 the other ; would plead as powerfully, probably, for the wrong as 
 for the right, and thus went through his life ; and we may look 
 back and ask for the good he did. Perhaps the clients he defended 
 will answer for him, but I am sure the amount can never be com- 
 pared with that done by Horace Mann. 
 
 If I ever felt proud of any one thing which I was instrumental in 
 doing, it was the action we had after the contest with the thirty- 
 one masters in Boston, after which our State Association was 
 formed. All 'he power which those masters could bring was con- 
 centrated there, and there was a determination to meet Mr. Mann, 
 and meet the Board of Education, and break down the whole. I 
 saw it, and I could not sympathize with my professional laborers, 
 and, with a few, 1 did what little I could to put an end to that whole 
 contest ; and the resolutions, which are in print and recorded, and 
 which ended that matter, I shall ever look upon with the highest 
 
110 AMERICAN NOKMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 satisfaction ; for the moment those resolutions were passed, the 
 contest ended ; those who opposed Mr. Mann, through the Board 
 of the State, disappeared, and few of them have been seen in the 
 Association since. There has been ever since a union between the 
 Board of Education and the teachers of the State. 
 
 The State of Massachusetts may congratulate itself that it had 
 such a man at the head of her educational plans at the time he be- 
 gan the work. No other man could have succeeded in waking up 
 such a spirit and building up such a system. 1 have often thought 
 of him as of the man who goes West and cuts down trees and digs 
 out the roots ; he did it because no other man could do it. Dr. 
 Sears came afterward, and he did his work, and well, and I can see 
 that there seems to have been a kind of Providential plan that these 
 two men and our present secretary were permitted to come on in 
 their order, and do the work they are doing in the State, But the 
 system has flowed out into other States, and has not stopped this 
 side of the broad ocean. The more we study the history of educa- 
 tion the more we shall see of his influence ; and whether the cause 
 of education shall go down, we may look upon one bright spot in its 
 history connected with his life ; and if it rises higher than ever 
 before, we may look to his as the power and lever by which it has 
 been raised. 
 
 Hon. Henry Barnard — I really feel utterly incompetent to utter 
 what I feel on this occasion. Four weeks ago I received a letter 
 from Horace Mann, inviting me to meet him at this very Conven- 
 tion ; and as the time at which the meeting was then appointed 
 would have made it impossible for me to attend here, I wrote to him 
 with reference to my own plans, and that wishing his advice and 
 direction, I would meet him at any point at any place that he would 
 appoint. After I found the time for holding this meeting was 
 changed, I felt it one of the pleasures of my vacation from my du- 
 ties that I should have the privilege of meeting him. I can hardly 
 explain what a chasm seemed to open at my feet when I read th 
 paragraph giving notice of his death. 
 
 The whole battle of Normal School instruction was fought in 
 Massachusetts over his person. It was the triumph that made suc- 
 cess sure in the Normal School enterprise ever afterward. There- 
 fore, it seems to me, that to come into such an audience as this and 
 speak his praise, is but a waste of words. Although it was inti- 
 
REMARKS OF MR. SMYTH. Ill 
 
 mated to me that I should say something, I felt that after the touch- 
 ing eloquence of the words of Dr. Emerson, silence was more 
 becoming than any words of ours. 
 
 I have only to add, that I think the great service of Mr. Mann 
 was the entire consecration of himself to this work and the giving 
 of his reports to the cause of education. Although many of the 
 facts and ideas had been touched upon before, it was his reports and 
 lectures that brought education literally up into the consideration of 
 the educated men of this country. All that had been written for 
 twenty-five years before did not produce so much influence as one 
 of his lectures published and disseminated over the country. It 
 brought the subject up into the domain of the Press, and that great 
 living voice, the Lyceums. 
 
 But I feel now that any further words would wedken the eflfect 
 they are calculated to produce. 
 
 Hon. Anson Smyth, of Ohio — I did not come here to say any- 
 thing respecting Mr. Mann. I feel that I stand among men who 
 knew him long years before I did ; and yet, as I come from the 
 place, this week, where his new-made grave is, and from the fact 
 that his last labors were with us, it seems appropriate that some- 
 thing should be said by an Ohio man, that you may know that we 
 are in sympathy with you and the whole country in mourning the 
 death of Mr. Mann. 
 
 His labors in Ohio were not of a kind to interest us so much as 
 his labors at the East. His labor there was in one particular insti- 
 tution, and we have so many colleges, so many more than we ought 
 to have, that the great mass of our people felt little interest in his 
 special work there. But he was known outside of his particular 
 duties as connected with Antioch College. He immediately asso- 
 ciated himself with the teachers of the State, and although a much 
 older man, and much wiser, than those whom he usually met in our 
 associations and institutes, he came with us, putting himself on a 
 level with us, discussing the questions of common interest in our 
 Association. We were always happy to see him, and felt instructed 
 by him ; for although he sometimes gave utterance to sentiments in 
 regard to education which perhaps all did not agree with, we all loved 
 to meet him. And I must say, that although on many points I could 
 not agree with him particularly, I loved him — I loved to be with him. 
 
 The last time he came to Columbus he came to attend our State 
 
112 AMERICAN NORMAL SCHOOL CONVENTION. 
 
 Association, and he went with me to dine. He came there in his 
 usual health and took a part in our deliberations. The next that I 
 heard of him was that he was very ill, and the next morning that he 
 was dead. 
 
 And so I wish to say to you who knew him longer and better than 
 we, that we are in sympathy with you. 
 
 There were some of us who felt a particular interest in him, and 
 especially with reference to his influence with regard to certain 
 vices, such as the use of stimulants, alcoholic drinks, and that per- 
 haps more common vice, the use of tobacco, on the part of those 
 who assume the office of teacher, and who ought to be examples 
 of purity, and propriety, and respectability. There was a keenness 
 of wit when he spoke which presented any vice or weakness which 
 he wished to put down in such a light that it had a powerful influ- 
 ence. There were few teachers who would like to go from one of 
 our Associations and be seen by him with a cigar in the mouth. 
 And if he had lived to no other purpose than to say all he did be- 
 fore our Associations upon that particular vice, I should say we 
 would build him a monument as high as that on Bunker Hill. 
 
 The President — Perhaps we can not better conclude these re- 
 marks than by permitting Mr. Mann to speak for himself. I have a 
 letter which I received from him but a short time since, which I 
 will read. 
 
 Antioch College, Yellow Springs, April 2Sth, 1859. 
 
 Wm. F. Phelps, Esq. : Dear Sir — Hardly anything would give me more 
 pleasure than to accept your kind invitation, b}-- means of which I should 
 expect to find myself once more in the presence of my old fellow-teachers. 
 
 Common Schools were my first love; they will be my last. But I 
 know not what my plans will be for the summer. I must recruit my 
 health. I am abolished by hard labor. I am a white slave without any 
 abolitionist to pity me. If, however, it shall be possible for me to join 
 the " Legion of Honor" once more, though it shall be but for a single 
 day, I shall rejoice to do so. How vividly do I remember the time when 
 this cause emitted its first glimmering, twilight ray ! now its glorious orb 
 is ascending toward the meridian. When the day for the meeting is 
 fixed upon, please send me a circular, and oblige, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Horace Mann. 
 
 The resolutions in relation to Mr. Mann were adopted by a vote 
 taken by rising and standing a few moments in silence. 
 
ADJOTJRNMENT. 113 
 
 The following resolutions were adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Association are due, and are hereby pre- 
 sented — 
 
 To those citizens of Trenton who have kindly extended the hospitalities of 
 their homes to the ladies attending the Convention ; 
 
 To C. C. Haven, Esq., for his highly interesting and methodical explanation, 
 upon the ground itself, of the Battle of Trenton — Dec. 26, 1776 ; 
 
 To the Hon. Mr. Field, of Princeton, for his kind attention to the members 
 of the Convention in his invitation to visit the literary institutions of Princeton 
 and its battle-ground, and to partake of the hospitalities of his house ; 
 
 To the keepers of the hotels, for a reduction in the usual charge for board ; 
 
 To the managers of the railroads leading to Trenton, for a reduction in the 
 usual fare ; 
 
 To the committee of arrangements, for their labor in making arrangements 
 for our meetings ; 
 
 And lastly, to the President of the Association, for the impartial and able 
 manner in which he has presided over our deliberations. 
 
 Adjourned sine die. 
 
ynv-TT ynrnn- 
 
5 
 
 PLANS AND DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF 
 
 STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, SALEM. 
 
 Teib building for the State Normal School at Salem, Mass., was erected in 
 1854. It is of brick, sixty-seven feet square, and two stories high. The I^st 
 Story contains : I, an Entrance Hall ; D, a Long Passage ; A, Lecture Koom ; 
 B, Room for Philosophical Apparatus ; C, Eecitation Room ; G, Cabinet of 
 Natural History ; H, Library ; J, L, Clothes and Dressing Rooms ; K, Recep- 
 tion Room ; E, E, E, E, Closets ; F, F, Passages to Cellar and Water-Closets ; 
 V, Water Tank. The Second Story contains : M, School-Room ; N, 0, S, T, 
 Recitation Rooms ; Q, Room for Books of Reference ; R, Teacher's Room \ 
 P^ P, P, P, Passages for Lower Story. 
 
6Z 
 
Plans and DEScRirnoN of thk State Xormal School of New jEasEr. 
 
 Tlie buildings occupied by the State Normal School of New Jersey, are two in 
 number, one of which is occupied exclusively by the Normal School proper, and 
 the other by both the Normal School and its adjunct, the Model School, but princi- 
 pally by the latter. The two were built and furnished at about $55,000. 
 
 The plans are drawn on a scale of thirty-two feet to the inch. Each building 
 is in the form of a Greek Cross, the main edifice running nearly north and south 
 with wings or projections on the east and west. The front wing of the Normal 
 School on the east, terminates in two towers, 10 by 10 feet. 
 
 The great objects secured in the adoption of these plans, are the highest degree 
 of convenience and adaptation to the purposes of a school for both sexes, symme- 
 try, tastefulness, economy in cost of construction, with ample facilities for lighting 
 and ventilation, the ingress and egress of pupils, together with a full supply of 
 water in the proper place, and for every desirable purpose. 
 
 The rooms are all large, airy, and commodious. The uses of each apartment 
 will be understood by reference to the numbers indicated on the diagrams, and 
 the accompanying explanation. Each building is heated by four of Boynton's 
 first class furnaces, and ventilated by means of air passages leading from each 
 room to a large chamber for the purpose in the attic, under the ventilator. These 
 air chambers are heated by stoves, thus creating a forced draught from each apart- 
 ment to the ventilator. 
 
 The furniture is of the latest and most approved character, and there are fifteen 
 hundred feet of the best Vermont and Lehigh wall slates. 
 
 Fig. 2.— First Story. 
 
 1, Main entrance and Hall, 2, 2, Cloak Rooms for each sex. 3, 3, Toilet 
 Rooms ibr each sex. 4, 5, Halls and entrances. 6, 6, 6, and 7, 7, 7, Recitation 
 Rooms. 8, &, Extra Cloak Rooms. 9, 9, Privies. 10, 10, Halls for each sex. 
 
3. SficOKD Story. 
 
 11, Reception Room. 12, Library. 13, 14, Teachers' Toilet Rooms. 15, 
 16, Halls and Stairways, each sex. 17, Assembly Room seated for 240. 18,18, 
 Recitation Rooms. 19, 19, Extra Cloak Rooms. 20, 20, Privies. 
 
 Fig. 4. Third Story. 
 
 21, 22, Drawing Room and Models. 23, Bell Ringer's Room. 24, Passage 
 to Observatory. 25, Lecture Room. 26, Recitation Room. 27, Room for 
 Mechanical Drawing. 28, 28, Rear Halls. 29, 30, Apparatus Rooms. 
 
Fig. 5. Basement of Model School. 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 ■ I 
 
 1, 2, Privies for Girls. 3, Halls to Privies for Girls. 4, 5, 6, &c., &c., 
 Cellars and Furnaces. 13, 14, Privies for Boys. 12, Halls to Privies for Boys. 
 
 Fig. 6. First Story.— Model School. 
 
 15, Halls, Girls' entrance, and main entrance. 16, 17, Girls' Cloak Rooms. 
 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, School. 24, Hall, rooms graded, 40 pupils each. 25, 
 Boys' Hall. 26, 27, Boys' Cloak Rooms. 
 
Fig. 7. Second Story.— Model School. 
 
 28, Girls' Cloak Room. 29, Library. 30, Girls' Hall and Stairways. 31, 
 32, 33, &c., &c., School Rooms, graded, 40 pupils each. 37, Hall. 38, Boys' 
 Hall and Stairways 39, 40, Boys' Cloak Rooms. 
 
 Fig. 8. Third Story.— Model School. 
 
 41, Room for Drawing, lighted from the Dome. 42, Hall and Stairways. 
 43, Great Lecture Room of the Normal School establishment, 56 by 75 feet. 44, 
 Hall. 45, Laboratory. 
 
f^*" THE 
 
 VNrvERr 
 
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NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 
 
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 D AV I E S' 
 
 Complete Course of Mathematics. 
 
 Hlemcntavg (BToursc. Retail Price. 
 
 D.WIES' PPwIMAIlY ARITHMETIC AND TABLE-BOOK $0 15 
 
 DAVIES' FIRST LESSONS IN ARITHMETIC 20 
 
 DAVIES' INTELLECTUAL ARITHMiiTIC 25 
 
 DAVIES' NEW SCHOOL ARITHMETIC 45 
 
 KEY TO DAVIES' NEW SCHOOL ARITHMETIC 45 
 
 DAVIES' NEW UNIVERSITY ARITHMETIC T5 
 
 KEY TO DAVIES' NEW UNIVERSITY ARITHMETIC 50 
 
 DAVIES' GRAMMAR OF ARITHMETIC 30 
 
 DAVIES' NEW ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA 75 
 
 KEY TO DAVIES- NEW ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA... 50 
 
 DAVIES' ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY AND TRIGONOMETRY.... 1 00 
 DAVIES' PRACTICAL MATHEMATICS 1 00 
 
 ^tibanceti €:ourse. 
 
 DAVIES' UNIVERSITY ALGEBRA 1 25 
 
 KEY TO DAVIES' UNIVERSITY ALGEBRA 1 00 
 
 DAVIES' BOURDONS ALGEBRA 1 50 
 
 KEY TO DAVIES' BOURDONS ALGEBRA 1 50 
 
 DAVIES' LEGENDRES GEOMETRY 1 50 
 
 DAVIES' ELEMENTS OF SURVEYING 1 50 
 
 DAVIES' ANALYTICAL GEOMETRY 1 25 
 
 DAVIES' DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS 1 2& 
 
 DAVIES' DESCRIPTIVE GEOMETRY 2 00 
 
 DAVIES' SHADES, SHADOWS, AND PERSPECTIVE 2 50 
 
 DAVIES' LOGIC OF MATHEMATICS 1 25 
 
 DAVIES' MATHEMATICAL DICTIONARY 2 50 
 
 D AV[ES' Matubm ATiCAL Cu ART (Sheet) 25 
 
 This Series, combining all that is tno.st valuable in the various methods of European 
 instruction, improved and matured by the susgestions of nearly forty years' experience, 
 now forms the only complete consecutive Courne of MatliemoticH. Its methods, 
 harmonizing as the \vork of one mind, carry the student onward liy the same analogies 
 and the same laws of association, and are calculated to impart a comprehensive knowl- 
 edge of the science, combining clearness in the several branche.s and unity and propor- 
 tion in the whole. The higher Books— in connection wiih I'rof. ChurdCs Calculus 
 and Analytical Geometry— eirfi the Text-books in the Military Academy of the 
 United States. The Superintendents of Public Instruction in very many States 
 have officially recommended this Series. It is adopted and in sucoe.-i.sful u^^« in the 
 Normal Schools of Nev York. Michigan, Connecticut, and other States, and in a 
 ]ar<re proportion of the best Schools, Academies, and Colleges of the Urdon. The 
 Revised Editions of the Arithmetics embody all the latest and most approved pro- 
 cesses or imparting a knowledge of the science of numbers. 
 
 A. S. Barnes & Burr have the pleasure of announcing an entirely New "Work, 
 by Professor Daviks, entitled 
 
 UrSW ISZ.ISZVIETa'TAB.ir AX.aZIBB.A, 
 
 Comprising the First Principles of the Science. 
 Also, just issued, 
 
 UNIVERSITY ALGEBRA, 
 
 Embracing the Logical Development of the Science, witli numerous graded exampFe!». 
 The above works combine, with the Bourdon's Algebra, to form a comjilete and 
 con'ccutive course— leading the pupil from the most eleuientary principles to th« 
 consideration of the most difficult problems of the science. 
 
 A. S. BARNES & BTIRR, Publishers, 
 
 51 & 53 John Street, New York. 
 
NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS, m 
 
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 A full treatise, with words arranged and classified according to tlieir vowel 
 sounds, and reading and dictation exercises. 
 
 THE NATIONAL SCHOOL PRIMER; or, "PRIMARY WORD-BUILDER." 
 (Beautifully Illustrated) Price 15 cents. 
 
 THE NATIONAL FIRST READER; or, "WORD-BUILDER." 
 
 (Beautifully Illustrated) 118 pages. Price 25 cents. 
 
 THE NATIONAL SECOND READER 224 pages. Price 37i cents. 
 
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 (Splendidly Illustrated.) 
 
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 THE NATIONAL FIFTH READER 600 pages. Price $1.00 
 
 With copious Notes, and Biographical Sketches of each Writer. 
 
 These Readers have been prepared with the greatest care and labor, by Richard 
 6. Parker, A.M., of Boston, and J. Madison Watson, an experienced Teaiher of 
 New York. No amount of labor or expense has been spared to render them as near 
 pm-fect as possible. The Illustrations, which are from original designs, and tlie 
 Typography, are unrivalled by any similar works. 
 
 The First Reader, or " 'Word-Builder," being the first issued, is already 
 in extensive use. It is on a plan entirely new and original, commencing wiih words 
 of one letter^ and building up letter by letter, until sentences are formed. 
 
 The Second, Third, and Fourth Readers follow the same inductive 
 plan, with a perfect and systematic gradation, and a strict classification of subjects. 
 The pronunciation and definition of difficult words are given in notes at the bottom 
 of each i)age. Much attention has been paid to Articulation and Orthoi-py ; and 
 Exercises on the Elementary Sounds and their combinations have been so introduced 
 as to teach but one element at a time, and to apply this knowledge t<i itnmediate use, 
 until tlie whole is accurately ard thoroughly acquired. 
 
 The Fifth Reader is a full work upon Reading and Elocution. The works of 
 many authors, ancient and modern, have been consulted, and more than a hundred 
 standard writers of the English language, on both sides the Atlantic, laid under con- 
 tribution to enable the authors to present a collection rich in all that can inform the 
 understanding, improve the taste, and cultivate the heart, and which, at the same 
 time, shall furnish every variety of style and subject to exemplify the principles of 
 Rhetorical delivefj', and form a finished reader and elocutionist Classical and his- 
 torical allusions, so common among the best writers, have in ail cases been explained; 
 and concise Biographical Sketches of authors from whose works extracts ha^e been 
 selected, have also been introduced, together with Ali>habeiical and Chronological 
 Lists of the Names of Authors; thus rendering this a convenient text-l)ook tor Stu- 
 dents in English and American Literature. 
 
 A. S. BARNES & BTJRR, Publishers, 
 
 51 & 53 John Street, New York, i 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
 
 OP 
 
 PARKER & WATSON^S READERS. 
 
 From Prof. Frederick S. Jkwei.l, o/the J^eio York State Normal Sc7iool. 
 It trives me pleasure to find 1n the National Series of School Headers ample room 
 for commendation. From a brief examination of them, I am led to believe tiiat we 
 havo none equal to them. I hope they will prove as popular as thoy are excellent. 
 
 From Hon. Theodork Fkklinoiiuyskn, President of Rutgers' CoUege, N. J. 
 A cursory e?:ainination lead.s me to the conclusion that the system contained in 
 these volumes de.'^erve* the patronage of our schools, and I have no doubt that it will 
 become extensively used in the education of children andyouth. 
 
 Fram N. A. Hamilton, Preaident of Teachers' Vnio7i, Whitewater, Wis. 
 
 The National Readers and Speller I have examined, and carefully compared with 
 
 others, and must [)ronoun<'e .them decidedly superior, in respect to literary merit, 
 
 style, and pri. e. The gradation is more complete, and the series much more desirable 
 
 for use in our schools than Sanders' or McGuffey's. 
 
 From Prof. T. F. Thickstun, Principal of Academxj and Normal. ScJiool, 
 Meadville, Pa. 
 1 am much p'eased with the National Series of Readers after having canvassed 
 their merits pretty thorouglily. The first of tlie series especially pleases me, because 
 it affords the mt-ans of teaching the '••word-method''' in an approj)riate and natural 
 manner. Tliey all are progressive, th.e rules of elocution are stated with clearness, 
 and the selection of pieces is such as to please at the same time that they instruct. 
 
 From J. W. ScHERMERnoRN, A. B., Principal Coll. Institute, Middletown, N. J. 
 I consider them emphatically the Readers of the present day, and I believe that 
 their intrinsic merits will insure for them a full measure of popularity. 
 
 From Pkter Roitget, Principal Public School No. 10, Brooklyn, 
 It gives me great pleasure to.be able to bear my unqualified testimony to the excel- 
 lence of the National Series of Readers, by Parker and Watson. The gradation of 
 the books of the series is very fine ; we have reading in its elements and in its highest 
 style. The fine taste displayed in the selections and in the collocation of the pieces 
 deserves much praise. A distinguishing feature of the series is the variety <)f the 
 subject-matter and of the style. The practical teacher knows the value of this chanic- 
 teristic for the development of the voice. The authors seem to have kept constantly 
 in view the fact that a reading-book is designed for children, and iherefoie they have 
 succeeded in forming a very interesting and improving collection of reading-matter, 
 highly adapted to the wants and purposes of the school-room. In short, I look upon 
 the National Series of Readers as a great success. 
 
 From A. P. Harrington, Principal of Union School, Marathon, N. Y. 
 These Readers, in my oi)inion, are the best I have ever examined. The rhetorical 
 exercises, in particular, are superior to any thing of the kind 1 have pver seen. I have 
 had better success with my reading classes .since I commenced training them on these, 
 than I ever met with before. The marked vowels in the reading exercises convey to 
 the reader's mind at once the astonishing fact that he has been accustomed to mispro- 
 nounce more than one-third of the words of the English language. 
 
 From Charles S. Halsey, Principal Collegiate Institute, Newtmi, N. J. 
 In the simplicity and clearness with which the principles are stated, in the appro- 
 priateness of the selections for reading, and in the happy adaptation ^f the different 
 parts of the series to each other, these works are superior to any other text-books on 
 this subject which I have examined. 
 
 From William Travis, Principal of Union School, Flint, Mich. 
 I have exHiiiined the National Scries of Readers, and am delighted to find it so far 
 in iidvance of most other series now in use, and so well adapted to the wants of the 
 Public Schools. It is uneqnale<i in the skillful arrangement of the material used, 
 beautiful typography, and the general neat and inviting appearance of its several 
 books I predict for it a cordial wnlcome and » general introduction by many of our '/Mk 
 most enterprising teachers. |0< 
 
■■-m, 
 
 NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 
 
 ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 
 
 BY S. W. CLARK and A. S. WELCH, 
 
 CONSISTING OF 
 
 01 ARK'S FIRST LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR Price $0 30 
 
 CLARE'S NEW ENGLISH GRAMMAR 60 
 
 CLARK'S GRAMMATICAL CHART 2 60 
 
 CLiiUK'S ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 40 
 
 WELCH' S ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH SENTENCE 76 
 
 A more Advanced Work, designed for Iligber Classes in Academies and Normal 
 Schools. By A. S. Welch, A. M., Principal of the State Normal School of 
 Michigan, at Ypsilanti. 
 
 The First Lessons in Grammar are prepared for young pupils, and as an 
 appropriate introduction to the larger work. The elements of Grammar are here 
 presented in a series of gradual oral exercises, and, as far as possible, in plain Saxon 
 words. 
 
 Clark's Wew Grammar, it is confidently believed, presents the only truo 
 and successful method of teaching the science of the English Language. The work is 
 thoroughly progressive and practical ; the relations of elements happily illustrated, 
 and their analysis thorough and simple. 
 
 This Grammar has been officially recommended by the Superintendents of Public 
 Instruction of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Missouri, and is the Text-book 
 adopted in the State Normal Scliools of New York, and other States. Its extensive 
 circulation and universal success is good evidence of its practical worth and superi- 
 ority. 
 
 Professor F. S. Jewell, of the New YorJc State Normal School, says : 
 
 '■ Clark's System of Grammar is worthy of the marked attention of the friends of 
 Education, Its points of excellence are of the most decided character, and will not 
 soon be surpassed." 
 
 "Let any clear-headed, independent-minded teacher master the system, and then 
 give it a fair trial, and there will be no doubt as to bis testimony." 
 
 "Welch's Analysis of the English Sentence.— The prominent features 
 of this work have been presented by Lectures to numerous Teachers' Institutes, and 
 unanimously approved. The classification, founded upon the fact that there are but 
 three elements in the language, is very simple, and, in many respects, new. The 
 method of disposing' of connectives is entirely so. The author has endeavored to 
 study the language as it is, and to analyze it without the aid of antiquated rules. 
 
 This work is highly recommended by the Superintendents of Public Instruction of 
 Michigan, Wisconsin, and other States, and is being used in many of the best schools 
 throughout the Union. It was introduced soon after publication into Oberlin Col- 
 lege, aad has met with deserved success. 
 
 A. S. BAENES & BURR, Publishers, ^ 
 
 51 & 53 John Street, New York, 
 
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 MOWTJEITH AND MclVALLY'S 
 
 MONTEITH'S FIRST LESSONS IN aEOGRAPHY Price $0 25 
 
 MONTEITH'S INTRODUCTION TO MANUAL OF GEOGRAPHY. 40 
 
 MONTEITH'S NEW MANUAL OF GEOGRAPHY 60 
 
 McNALLY'S COMPLETE SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY 1 00 
 
 Monteith's First Lessons in Geography— Introduction to Man- 
 ual of Geography— and New Manual of Geography, are arranged on 
 the catechetical i)lan, which has been proven to be the best and n'.ost successful 
 method of teaching this branch of study. Th*' questions and answers are models of 
 brevity and adaptation, and the maps are simple, but accurate and beautiful. 
 
 McNally's Geography completes the Series, and follows the same general 
 plan. The maps are 8[)lendi(lly engraved, beautifully colored, and perfectly accurate 
 and a profile of the country, sliowing the elevations and depressions of land, is given 
 at the bottom of the maps. The order and arrangement of map questions is also 
 peculiarly happy and systematic, and the descriptive matter just what is needed, and 
 nothing more. No Series heretofore published has been so extensively introduced in 
 so short a time, or gained such a wide-spread popularity. 
 
 These Geogi-aphies are used more extensively In the Public Schools of Nevsr York, 
 Brooklyn, and Newark, than all others. 
 
 yW° A. B. Clark, Principal of one of the largest Public Schools in Brooklyn, says : 
 " I have used over a thousand copies of Monteith's Manual of Geography since its 
 adoption by the Board of Education, and am prepared to say it is the best work for 
 junior and intermediate classes in our schools I have ever seen." 
 
 TJie Series, in whole or 
 
 New York State Normal School. 
 New York City Normal School. 
 New Jersey State Normal School. 
 Kentucky State Normal School. 
 Indiana State Normal School. 
 Ohio State Normal School. 
 Michigan State Normal School. 
 Y'ork County (Pa.) Normal School. 
 Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. 
 Cleveland Female Seminary. 
 Public Schools of Milwaukie. 
 Public Schools of Pittsburgh. 
 Public Schools of Lancaster, Pa. 
 Public Schools of New Orleans. 
 
 in part, has been adopted in the 
 
 Public Sclnxds of New York. 
 Public Schools of Brooklyn, L. I. 
 Public Schools of New Haven. 
 Public Schools of Toledo, Ohio. 
 Public Schools of Norwalk, Conn. 
 Public Sciiools of Richmond, Va. 
 Public Schools of Madison, Wis. 
 Public Schools of Indianapolis. 
 Public Schools of Springfield, Mass. 
 Public Sciiools of Columbus, Ohio. 
 Public Schools of Hartford. Conn. 
 Public Schools of Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 And other places too numerous to 
 mention. 
 
 They have also been recommended by the State Superintendents of iLLiNOia, 
 Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nortu Carolina, Alabama, and by numerous 
 Teachers' Associations and Institutes throughout the country, and are in successful 
 use in a multitude of Public and Private Schools throughout the United States. 
 
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 51 & 53 John Street, New York. |^ 
 
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 \timt, f ogic, aitir |itttllcctiml ^pijilosopf^i). 
 
 ELEMENTS OF THE AKT OF RHETORIC. Adapted for use in Colleges and 
 
 Academiee, and also for Private Study. By Heney N. Day, President of Ohio 
 
 Female College Price 75 cents. 
 
 It is a clear and systematic exhibition of the elements of the Art of Khetoric. Tlie 
 prominent ciiarac.teristics of his work are, the general exactness of his definitions, 
 the clear limitation of his subject, the philosophic development of it, the large shaie 
 of attention which he gives to Invention as a branch ot Rhetoric, and his Analysis 
 of Style. 
 
 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC; or. An Analysis of the Laws of Thought. 
 By Rev. Asa Mahan. Designed for Colleges Price $1.50 
 
 From the Banner of the Cross {Philadelphia). 
 "Taken as a whole, it forms the most full and complete text-book with which we 
 are acquainted, and is destined to render good service to a study which cannot be 
 safely omitted in the culture and education of any people." 
 
 From the Neic York Independent. 
 " Few men better understand the laws of thought, both in the way of mental analy- 
 sis and of practical application, than the author of this treatise. . . . After many 
 years of patient study and large t-xperience as a teacher. Dr. Mahan brings forth in 
 this volume a System of Logic which has the merits of being intelligible and self- 
 consistent, an(i which, in addition to the author's carefully elaborated views, embraces 
 the results of the ablest minds of Great Britain, Germany, an<l France, in tlie same 
 department. We have not yet found leisure to study the work with sutticient care to 
 pronounce a inatared opinion as to its terms and method. But as a text-book for 
 Colleges, It will probably take precedence of any now before the public: for, with a 
 text-book in which the views of the author are so clearly and sharply defined and so 
 vigorously maintained, an intelligent teacher cannot foil to have a wakeful class, capa- 
 ble of ajipreciating his own criticisms upon that author." 
 
 KAMES' ELEMENTS OF CRITICISM. With Additions and Improvements. 
 
 By Rev. Jamks R. Boyd Price $1.25 
 
 The chief points of superiority claimed for the present edition are the following: 
 
 1. The matter heretofore contained in an Appendix has been brought forward, and 
 forms the first part of the Introduction. 
 
 2. Frequent omissions have been made in the text and notes, where the matter was 
 found to be either obsolete, of no utility, or objectionable on account of its indelicacy. 
 
 3. Many poetical quotations (parlicudarly some of those in foreign languages), that 
 seemed to be an incumbrance rather than an advantage to the work for purposes of 
 education, have been abbreviated or omitted. 
 
 It will be seen that the present volume is not an abridgment of Kames, but it em- 
 braces the entire work, with the exception only of those portions which every in- 
 structor and intelligent reader must regard as blemishes, or consider useless ; while 
 large additions have been made, from recent and valuable sources, to render more 
 complete and satisfactory the incomparable treatise (as here presented) of this highly- 
 talented and justly distinguished and popular author. 
 
 Numerous additions, of great value, have be^n added to the original work; and in 
 scarcely a less degree, by striking from it a large amount of matter that greatly im- 
 pairs its excellence and usefulness. 
 
 A SYSTEM OF INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY. By Rev. Asa Mauan. 
 
 Price $1.00. 
 
 From Prof, Hokacr Wkkster, LL.D., of the Free Academy. Next) York. 
 
 "I do not know any other treatise on Elementary Philosophy so well calculated to 
 
 give a thorough, correct, and critical knowledge of this important science, I trust 
 
 that it may be the means of creating a taste for this science, as it certainly will be, if 
 
 studied, of givintr a high idea of its importance iu relation to all other departinents 
 
 of human investigation." 
 
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 51 & 53 John Street, New York. 
 
NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 
 
 SPELLING AND DEFINING, 
 
 THE JUVENILE DEFINER: A Collection and Classification of Familiar 
 Words and Names, correctly Spelled, Accented, and Defined. By W. W. Suith, 
 PriiK-ipal of Giammar Scho()l No. 1, New York. Price 30 cts. 
 
 This is an invaluable book for young children : instead of long columns of to them 
 incomprehensible and meaningless words, the lessons are formed of those words which 
 thoy hear and use almost every day, but of which they have formed only imperfect 
 Ideas. The words are grouped wiib reference to similar signification or use — as the 
 several kinds of Buildings compose one class; — the kinds of Vesskls another;— 
 Vkiiiclf.8 another; — Cloths another, &c., Ac. ; experience having shown that the 
 knowledge of one word of a cla>s pioiUices in the pupil a strong desire to know all 
 belonging to that class, with thtir various shades of meaning, application, Ac. The 
 principal' words used in the definitions are also defined, and the arrangement is such 
 that almost every word in the book is defined at the time or before itsemployment. 
 
 THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL SPELLER; or, SPELLER'S NEW MANUAL. 
 
 Containing Rules for Spelling, with numerous Examples to illustrate Mie Appli- 
 caiion of each Rule; together with a large Collection of the most Difficult Words 
 in the English Language, correctly Spelled, Pronounced, and Defined. Arranged 
 in Ea.sy Lessons for Intermediate Classes. Price 40 cts. 
 
 This book is designed for those pupils who have studied through the Juvknilk 
 Definkk. The Rules for Spelling are in simple language, having numerous exa!iiples 
 of familiar words attached to illustrate the intent of each. These Rules teach the 
 formation of the great majority of the derivatives, and consequently embrace the 
 greater |)ortion of the words of the language. 
 
 T' e lessons consist of words grouped with reference to the sameness of sound of 
 certain syllables differently spelled ; as authorize, e^.ercise, analyze, mcHfice — the 
 pronunciation of each of these terminations has in it the sound of ize, though ex- 
 
 i)resse(l by a different combination of letters. Again : burfou\ borough, hergaviot, 
 umrgeois. hirelten, have tiie sound oi bur in the^rtrst syllable of each, while each is 
 Sfielled differently: the same may be said iA' chri/sali.% crispy. Christian, crystal— 
 all commencing with the sound of A vis — and many others. 
 
 The words of the lessons have also the pronunciation {in italics), and a short 
 definition of each attached— the whole comprising the most difficult words in the 
 language. To which are added copious Exercises in False Orthography- the words 
 to be written correctly by the pupil. It can also be used as a dictation exercise. 
 
 THE SPELLER AND DEFINER'S MANUAL ; Being a DICTIONARY and 
 SPELLING-BOOK combined, in which the most Useful Words in the English 
 Language are Spelled, Pronounced, and Defined, and arranged in Clas.ses; to- 
 gether with Rules for Spelling, Prefixes and Suffixes, Rules for the Use of Capi- 
 tals, Punctuation Marks, Quotations from other Languages used in English Com- 
 position, Abbreviations, &c., &c. To which is added a Vocabulary of Reference. 
 Price 60 cts. 
 
 In this ])Ook. designed for the highest class, we have, 1st, A dissertation on the 
 sounds of the Vowels and Consonants^ their uses and powers. 2d, Rules for Spelling. 
 3d, Prefixes and Suffixes, with their meanings. 4th, Punctuation marks, and how to 
 use them — Rules for the use of Capitals, Rules for Letter and Note writing, with 
 diagrams, &c. In the body of the work there are about 14,000 of the principal words 
 in the language— arranged in classes according to their derivation,— correctly spelled, 
 pronounced, and defined — the pronunciation having the vowel sounds marked by 
 figures wliich refer to a Key easily understood and applied. By this arrangement, 
 the knowledge of one word of a class will give some idea of the others. 
 
 There are also Questions at the bottom of each page, which, to be correctly an- 
 swered, require the pupil to keep constantly in his mind the Rules for Spelling, their 
 application. &c. 
 
 This book can also be used with great advantage as a Dictionary. As the words 
 are not in al[)habetical order for obvious reasons, an alphabetical Vocabulary is placed 
 at the eai, by which means any word in the book can be found. 
 
 A. S. BARNES & BURR, Publishers, 
 
 61 & 53 John Street, New York. 
 
NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-?OOKS. 
 
 ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 The following Works upon tho Art of Spelling, Pkonunciation, and Defining, are 
 especially commended to Teachers. 
 
 NATIONAL SERIES OF SCHOOL SPELLERS. 
 
 PARKER & WATSON'S NATIONAL ELEMENTARY SPELLER .. . 15 eta. 
 PARKER & WATSON'S NATIONAL PRONOUNCING SPELLER... 25 cts. 
 
 From M. K. Barnakd, Principal Union School, Ithaca, New Yoi^k. 
 
 "I iiave examined the National Pronouncing Spkllke, and am free to say that 
 it is the only work I ever saw which exactly meets my idea of what a spelling-book 
 should be. It is pre-enunently practical; it requires the child to do what it will be 
 necessary for him to do ail througli his life; it requires iiiin not only to tell how the 
 letters are Jirranged to form the word, but to write it, using it according to its signifi- 
 cation. It needs only to be seen and understood to meet with favor." 
 
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 This series of Books is prepared by W. W. Smith, Principal of Grammar School 
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 Public attention is now being extensively called to the deficiency of good text- 
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 The title of this Work is — '• Elements of the English Language ; or, Analytical 
 Ortho'graphy. Designed to teach the Philosophy of Orthography and Orthoepy. 
 By Albert D. Wright, A. M." 
 
 Extract from Proceedings of Broome County Association. 
 "A pupil will learn more of the power of Letters by studying this book for one 
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 down in most other Spelling-Books for years." 
 
 PAGE'S NORMAL CHART OF ELEMENTARY SOUNDS $2.50 
 
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 No School -room is complete without this Chart, prepared by D. P. Page, late 
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 "This Chart is designed to aid the Teacher in giving to his pupils the true Ele- 
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 YiomV— Albany Evening Journal. 
 
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 I have very carefully looked over Professoj 
 is, ill all respects, the best work on this sub^ 
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 1. SPELLING, ^ IDIXCr, AND ELOCUTION. 
 
 «. PAKKiiB AND J. MADISON WATSON. 
 
 Parker's Ehetorical Reader. 
 Smith's Juvenile Dcflner. 
 Smith's Grammar-School Spell 
 Sraitli's Definer's Manual. 
 Wi'ight's Analytical Orthography. 
 Day's Art oi Elocution. 
 High School Literature. 
 Tho National Elementary Speller. I Brooks' School Manual of Devotion. 
 
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 The National First Reador. 
 The National Second Reader. 
 The National Third Reader. 
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 Th'> National Fifth Reader. 
 The National Pronouncing Speller 
 
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 Clark's New English Grammar. 
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 Day's Art of Rhetoric. 
 
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 Boyd's Karnes' Elements of Criticism. 
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 Boyd's Thomson's Seasons. 
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 Davies' Primary Arithmetic. 
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 Davies' New School A I'lthme ..ic. 
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 Davies' Elementary Geirne.iy. 
 Davies' Practical Mathematics. 
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 Willard's Large Hist, of the United States. 
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 Davies' Analytical Geometry. 
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 Davies' Logic uf Mathematics. 
 Davies' and Peck's Dictionary of Mathe- 
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 Mills' History of the Ancient Hebrews. 
 Dwight's Grecian and Roman K'yth jlogy 
 
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 Parker's Natural Philosophy, i'art III. 
 
 Nortoi *s First Book of Natural Philosophy. 
 Porter's First Book of Chemistry. 
 Norton and Porters First Book of Science. 
 Porters Principles of Chemistry. 
 Peck's ■'■.laments of Mechanics. 
 DarLy's Southern BoUniy. 
 
 ',. PROFESSOR BROOKS' CLASSICS. 
 
 j Brocks' Ovid's Metamorphoses, 
 Brooks' Historia Sacra 
 
 Mclntyre on Astronomy and t\ e Globes, 
 liartlett's Acoustics and Optics. 
 Biirtlett's Synthetical Mechanics. 
 Bartiett's Analytical Mechanics. 
 Bi.rtlett's Spherical Astronomy. 
 Church's Elements of Calculus. 
 Church's Analytical Geometry. 
 Courtenay's Elements of Calculus. 
 
 Brooks' First Latin Lessons. 
 Brooks' First Greek Lessons. 
 
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