The pupils were taught vocal music, drawing, and composition during the entire year. Moral philosophy was given daily by the principal in familiar lectures. One day of the week was devoted to practice in teaching, "when the pupils choose their subjects, and teach before the whole school." Written questions in various departments were occasionally given out. A model school was connected with the school and used as a preparatory school to the normal school classes. In this model or preparatory school the pupils of the senior class of the normal school taught in rotation, under the supervision of the principal. Speaking of this school the Rev. S. J. May, the successor and biographer of Mr. Pierce, the first principal, says: "As soon as practicable after opening the normal school at Lexington, Mr. Pierce instituted the model department, a school composed of the children of the neighborhood, just such as would be found in most of our country district schools. In that he lead his pupils, by turns to apply and test for themselves the correctness and the excellence of the principles of teaching which he was laboring to instill into them. This was the most peculiar part of the institution. In the management of it he evinced great adroitness, as well as indomitable perseverence and untiring patience. In that model department the future teachers under his supervision practiced the best methods of governing and instructing children, so that each one when she left the normal school carried with her some experience in the conduct of a common school." In 1841, Mr. Pierce describes his method of training in the normal school_or_department, properly so called, thus: "You [meaning the Hon. Henry Barnard, then superintendent of common schools of Connecticut and subsequently the first United States Commissioner of Education] ask for a full account of my manner of instruction in the art of teaching. This is not easy to give. From what I say you may get some idea of what I attempt and of the manner of it. Two things I have aimed at especially in this school: (1) To teach thoroughly the principles of the several branches studied, so that the pupils may have a clear and full understanding of them; (2) to teach the pupils by my own example, as well as by precepts, the best way of teaching the same things effectually to others. I have four different methods of recitation: First, by question and answer; second, by conversation; third, by calling on one, two, three, more or fewer, to give an analysis of the whole subject contained in the lesson; and fourth, by requiring written analyses, in which the ideas of the author are stated in the language of the pupil. At all the recitations we have more or less of discussion. Sometimes, instead of reciting the lesson directly to me, I ask them to imagine themselves for the time acting in the capacity of teachers. At many of our recitations more than half the time is spent with reference to teaching the art of teaching.'" * * It may possibly be overcautious to say that by this was not meant Pitman's or any other system of stenography. Mr. Pierce was not only the head teacher but the only one for the forty-one pupils in attendance in 1841; the school opened with three. (May's Memoir and Boston Com. Sch. Journal, 1841.) The sessions of this school, of which there were two for each of the 5 school days of the week, continued from three to three and one-half hours. Out of school the pupils were expected to devote two or three hours of each day to study. In the sixth annual report (1843) of the Massachusetts State Board of Education the following occurs: "The board would be far from intimating that all the pupils of the normal schools have given satisfaction to the districts in which they have been employed. This would be a consummation rather devoutly to be wished than reasonably to be expected. For the purpose of disseminating as far as possible the advantages arising from these schools amongst all the people of the State, it has been the object of the board rather to make a partial improvement in the minds of many pupils than to perfect a few in the business of instruction." NORMAL SCHOOL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. The normal classes of the academies of New York seem not to have been altogether satisfactory, and by act of May 7, 1844, the legislature provided for a State normal school at Albany, in conformity with a lengthy report reviewing the establishment of schools on this and on the other side of the Atlantic, and, especially, the working of the schools in Massachusetts. The school was placed under the control of an "executive committee," one of whom was the superintendent of public instruction, who said in his remarks on the opening of the school, December 18, 1844: "It is not expected that individuals will be received as members of this institution who are not already acquainted with those departments of education which are usually taught in our schools. Their knowledge of all the elementary branches is here to be reviewed and made perfect; and in addition to this they will be carefully and practically exercised in the best modes of teaching all these branches. For this purpose arrangements are now in progress, although not yet completed, for providing model classes of little children of the different ages and descriptions usually found in our country schools. These classes will be taught by the pupils of this institution, under the supervision of the principal, from the learning of the alphabet upwards through all the grades of common-school education. "In addition to the ordinary branches of study pursued in our common schools, it is intended that vocal music and drawing shall form a part of the course of instruction here to be communicated. Physiology also, so far as it embraces the science of vitality and the laws to be observed in the preservation of health, will be taught." The executive committee, in addition to the studies indicated above, added algebra, geometry, surveying, application of science to the arts, use of globes, intellectual and moral philosophy, "and such other branches as the executive committee may from time to time direct." Coeducation was practiced. In the earliest catalogue this Office has of this school (1845), the programme is given as follows: Wednesday is devoted to penmanship, composition, declamation, "sublectures," lectures, and gen. eral exercises. The experimental school was under the charge of "a permanent teacher," who was aided by "two 'teachers' and two 'visitors' each week; it being understood that the 'visitors' of the one week shall become the 'teachers' for the next." THE NORMAL SCHOOL OF PHILADELPHIA, We have spoken of the necessity when considering the question we have in hand, of beginning with the action taken in New York, but by the fifth section of the act of the 6th of March, 1818, for the education of children at public expense within the city and county of Philadelphia," the controllers of the public schools were 46 to establish a model school to qualify teachers for sectional schools in other parts of Pennsylvania." The building and furnishing of this "model school" cost $4,938, the teachers' salaries, stationery, etc., $2,157, and furniture $862, as reported on the 31st of December, 1819; this was the first schoolhouse erected by the city school authorities. The city had adopted the Lancasterian or monitorial system, in which "one teacher, aided by monitors from amongst his own pupils, was considered sufficient for the care and government and instruction of 300 children." In the eleventh annual report of the controllers (1829) we find that "several persons of both sexes have recently availed themselves of the privilege of acquiring a knowledge of the Lancasterian plan of instruction by attending the model and other schools, and some of the individuals thus qualified are candidates for employment in Pennsylvania;" and that "the principal of the boys' model school has compiled an epitome of geography especially adapted to seminaries of mutual instruction." In 1834, sixteenth annual report, an "experimental infant school was established in the building occupied by the model school, exhibiting" under the directions of its accomplished teacher, a constant and rapid improvement in the children, and at the same time has furnished an admirable seminary for the instruction of infant-school teachers, numbers of whom have regularly devoted their time to the acquirement of practical skill in conducting these schools, and are believed in several instances now competent to take charge of similar establishments." 66 About 1836 a system of "infant schools" and another of "primary schools" having grown up by the side of the "monitorial schools," and a committee having visited Boston and New York, the monitorial system began rapidly to decline, and au effort, "an experiment" as the president of the board calls it, was made to supply the place of juvenile monitors, often incompetent and always indifferent to the improvement of their fellows" by well-qualified teachers, of whom a number should be of the gentler sex, that the "peculiar benefits to be derived from their presence and influence" might be secured. The high school establisbed in the following year was for boys only; many of its graduates, however, became teachers. In the twenty-fourth annual report (1842) "a plan for organizing a branch of the high school for females and a school for female teachers, in the model school had been discussed during the year, but nothing definite had been determined on in relation to them." One of the three courses of the high school was the "classical course for teachers and others." In 1844 "Saturday classes, to consist of girls and female teachers, connected with the public schools, were formed. The following is the course, to continue for eighteen months, proposed by the principal of the high school I. Reading of the English poets. IV. Drawing. IX. Algebra. V. Penmanship. VI. Hygiene. This course was to correct "the singular anomaly of intelligent and well-educated young women, from the date of their appointment as primary teachers, actually retrograding, and becoming finally disqualified for promotion by the time their age and experience entitled them to it." On February 1, 1848, the city normal school was established, with seven departments, under as many instructors, including the principal, who had charge of the professional training. The names of the departments and their scope are thus given in the first semi-annual report of the principal, dated August 29, 1848. I. Theory and Practice of Teaching.-Lectures on the principles of education, embracing mental, moral, and physical education, and instruction in teaching the elementary branches. II. Department of Mathematics.-Review of elementary arithmetic, and instruction in higher arithmetic, algebra, and elementary astronomy. III. Department of History.-Review of geography and history of the United States, and instruc tion in the history of America, with the contemporaneous history of England. IV. Department of Grammar.-Review of English grammar, and instruction in the elements of composition and rhetoric. V. Department of Reading.-Instruction in the art of reading, course of reading and analysis of English words. VI. Department of Drawing and Writing. VII. Department of Music. Practice in teaching and lectures on school government were to be added, and a course in chemistry, physics, and physiology. The session lasted five hours and four recitations were had daily. The theory of the instruction is thus given by the principal: "The style of recitation, mode of illustration, and perspicuity and precision of language, have been made prominent objects of instruction; and while care was taken to familiarize the pupils with the branches reviewed, a thorough acquaintance with the best means of rendering them intelligible, especially to dull minds or weak capacities, was insisted on. The members of the classes were themselves made the subjects of practical illustration of the methods to be pursued, by requiring all who were found ignorant of the elements to return to first principles and master them before being allowed to enter upon a study requiring a knowledge of these principles; nor were any permitted to pass to a higher subject of study until their perfect acquaintance with the lower branches was demonstrated by their exhibiting ability to communicate what they knew to the fellow members of their classes." The principal would maintain that "the real difference between a normal school and an ordinary school consists in learning to impart, as well as learning." He says: "The difference between acquiring a knowledge of a branch for the purpose of teaching it, and studying merely for personal improvement, must be apparent to the most superficial observer; and if in a school a course of instruction is pursued adapted to qualifying teachers, then the school is no longer an ordinary one, but becomes a normal school, and a twofold duty is imposed upon the pupils; first to acquire a knowl edge of the branches, and then to learn to communicate that knowledge to others. The performance of the latter evidently involving loss of time and waste of effort to all except those who are preparing themselves for teachers." The school of practice was composed of a girls' grammar school, with 230 pupils under a female principal and an assistant, and a boys' secondary school, with 147 pupils, under a female principal and an assistant. At least three pupils of the normal school were employed at one time in teaching in one of these schools. It was the duty of the regular teachers to aid the novice by teaching with her and for her. Before placing a pupil in charge of a class the principal carefully informed her as to the particular duties connected with its instruction and management. Should the pupil prove deficient, she was withdrawn, and her subsequent instruction in the normal school properly directed to removing her deficiencies. THE CONNECTICUT NORMAL SCHOOL. In 1849 the legislature of Connecticut passed an act of which the first section reads: "There shall be established, as hereinafter provided, one normal school or seminary for the training of teachers in the art of instructing and governing the common schools of the State; the object of which normal school or seminary shall be, not to educate teachers in the studies now regarded by law, but to receive such as are found competent in these studies in the manner hereinafter provided, and train them in the best methods of teaching and conducting common schools.” The course of study at the beginning of the second year is given by the Connecticut School Journal (the earliest circular in our files is for 1855) as follows: JUNIOR CLASS. - Every term.-Reading, writ- } ing, spelling, English grammar, arithmetic, geog. raphy, United States history, composition for private inspection, and declamation in private. During the six weeks' session, spring and fall, this class attend a course of lectures on school arrangements. MIDDLE CLASS (consisting of all who can bear thorough examination in all the above branches).Every term.-General history, algebra, physiol ogy, analysis of English idioms, composition for public criticism. Declamation in public. Also, first session, lectures on mental philosophy and astronomy; second and third sessions, study of globes and lectures on the art of teaching; third session, lectures on natural philosophy and botany. SENIOR CLASS (including those familiar with the studies of the other classes).-Every term.Rhetoric, geometry, daily public extemporaneous discourses and debates, with public declamations and essays, read by the author weekly, and open to criticism by the class. Also, first session, logic; third session, lectures on chemistry, mineralogy and geology; and, fourth session, critical examination of one of the English classics. German, French, Latin, and Greek may be studied by any desiring to do so without charge for tuition, provided their attainments in branches required by law warrant it in the view of the teacher. Singing and drawing are taught to all classes every term. Returning again to the fifth annual report of the State superintendent, from which we have quoted the section of the organic law, we find among other matter pertaining to the new school the following: "By means of the regular classes in the normal school and in the schools of practice an opportunity will be offered to every member of the school to review thoroughly any one or all of the elementary studies required to be taught in the common schools of the State, and to extend his attainments in any of these studies, and such kindred branches as will facilitate his success as a teacher in any grade of common schools." In addition to the studies now generally taught in our schools, it is proposed to give some practical instruction in Vocal music and physiology; and to those whose previous training or whose residence at the institution will be long enough to allow of this extension of the course withoat abridging the time and the attention which are due to the elementary studies, a general view of the principles of agricultural chemistry and of domestic economy will be presented. * * The manner in which these subjects were to be taught was told in the following language: "Subjects will be taught in the normal school rather than text-books; and the manner in which the same subject is treated by several of the best authors will be compared and discussed, in order that the graduates may be prepared to decide on the comparative merits of school books, and at the same time be able to teach the subjects properly, even if pupils of the same class should study the subject in different books. In addition to familiar and practical suggestions on particular points in the organization, instruction, and discipline of schools, as occasion may call for the same in the daily routine of the instruction, lectures will be given on the history of education and schools; on the objects and principles of public education in general, and of our own system in particular; on the art of teaching and its methods, and the application of these methods to each particular study; on the theory of discipline and its practice; on the peculiarities of a district school, as well as of other grades of schools; on the principles of school architecture; on legal position and relations of a teacher in our system of common schools, and a variety of other topics." MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. Michigan has always been an educating State, and from the normal schools established in New England and in the Middle States we turn to the region of the Great Lakes. We learn from the first section of the act of 1849 establishing the school, "That a State normal school be established, the exclusive purposes of which shall be the instruction of persons, both male and female, in the art of teaching and in all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education; also, to give instructions in the mechanic arts, and in the arts of husbandry and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens." By section 10 it is further provided, "That any person may be admitted who shall pass a satisfactory examination." The State board of education, in the report for 1880, comments on the foregoing pro visions thus: "It will be seen that the above statement of the work of the normal school really includes all the work originally planned for the branches of the university. At the time the normal school was projected the branches of the university had been permanently discontinued, and the high schools of the State not definitely planned. There was, in fact, nothing in the way of public-school facilities between the district school and the university. The normal school, therefore, as the only State school of the same grade, was to be a teachers' school, a farmers' school, an academy, all in one. In reality the academy had but little more right to a place |