The State Board of Education in Account with W. R. Hemphill, Jan. 11. By Tuition from Nov. 1, 1865, to May 8, 1866,.... J. F. Carey, received for diploma,. Ypsilanti, March 8th, 1866. $1,433 84 127 00 2,500 00 255 00 3.00 $3,518 84 BEPORT OF VISITORS. TO HON. ORAMEL HOSFORD, Supt. Pub. Instruction: The undersigned, Committee appointed to visit the Michigan State Normal School, at Ypsilanti, report that they have discharged the duties supposed to be implied in their appointment. We attended upon the two public examinations of the year, and have visited it at other times. We agree in bearing testimony, after careful observation, to the thoroughness and excellence of the instruction given in this school. We are happy to say that the institution is worthy the fullest confidence of the friends and patrons of education in the State. A good evidence that the State Normal School is doing its appropriat work is furnished by the report brought out at the meeting of the Normal School Teachers' Association. The aim had been to keep a record of the employment of the graduates after their graduation. It was gratifying to know that so large a proportion were permanently engaged in the work for which they had been specially educated; it was the exception rather than the rule, that any had left teaching and gone into business. That record impresses the members of Committee which heard it, that this institution has acquired an extensive and vital influence over the great school system of our own State, and also several very interesting connections with those of other States, on account of the important positions there filled by its graduates. Our observation has been that the Faculty of the Institution, have not been so wedded to any old routine system as to be slow to seek and mature improvement in method of teaching. When we consider the remarkable fact, that after so long a time that schools have existed among men, the work of teaching as a science and an art, is but just beginning to be recognized as such, it will not be surprising that some things which they do in their school, should appear to many as new and original. But with the caution to all the graduates, which has been distinctly given, that the attempt should not be made to introduce all these changes and improvements at once, into every school to which they go, we hope and trust that this Institution may be the means of doing what the public will not fail to appreciate, improve the methods of teaching in our common schools, and help to perfect our whole system of education. The committee are most happy to bear testimony to the excellent moral and religious influence existing in this school; an influence free from sectarianism, and which we recognize as the spirit of Catholic Christianity, which is confessedly essential to the thoroughly qualified teacher. In this Report we cannot enter into a discussion of the best method of teaching the several branches of study. This subject is constantly receiving the attention of the faculty, who mingle more or less with the teachers of the whole State; and from time to time every friend of education, as opportunities offer, through the press, at teachers' institutes, and other occasions, may, and ought to, contribute his thought on a subject so important and interesting to all. We did not hear any recitation upon the science and art of teaching. This, we suppose, was owing to the transition state of the school, occasioned by the resignation of the former Principal, and his place not having been more than temporarily supplied. The Committee would suggest a single recommendation: that the grade for teaching in the model school be raised, so that none shall teach in it who have not been thoroughly fitted for that work in the institution, or who shall not have passed a satisfactory examination in the science and art of teaching. We witnessed some very fine specimens of teaching in this department by the Normal pupils; other examples were more immature, showing the need of better qualification for the work. This, we are aware, must vary with the talent and acquirements of the pupils in the institution during the year. With these general observations, we close by commending the State Normal School to the love and confidence and patronage of the people. Ypsilanti, Oct. 2, 1866. G. P. TINDALL, CHAS. E. HEWITT, REPORT OF PROF. D. P. MAYHEW, PRINCIPAL NORMAL SCHOOL. Winter Term of 1865–6. No. of Pupils in Classes A and B,... 105 |