Cities and towns containing 4,000 inhabitants and over from which no statistics have been received-Continued. Cities and towns from which returns were received, and rejected for reasons stated. CHAPTER VI. TRAINING OF TEACHERS. General recognition of the importance of normal training-Normal schools-Courses of study in State normal schools-City training schools-Model schools-Physical and manual training at normal schools-Teachers' institutes-Teachers' reading circles-Summer schools for teachers-Present condition of normal training (by States)--Remarks upon the tables-General summary, showing teaching force, where educated, teachers' certificates, etc. (Table 23)-Statistics of teachers' insti tutes (Table 24)-Summary of statistics of normal schools (Table 25)-Statistics of public normal schools (Table 26). GENERAL RECOGNITION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF NORMAL TRAINING. In a review of the work for the professional training of teachers during the past year the conclusion is unavoidable that it has been one of marked advance and effectiveness. From all quarters come encouraging reports of increased interest and intelligent zeal in the line of the teacher's profession; and the larger appropriations, the thorough repair and enlargement of existing institutions and appliances, the establishment of new schools upon most liberal and approved patterns, the eager crowds of students seeking admission, as well as the growing demand on the part of the public for better and professionally trained teachers, indicate that pedagogy, as a profession, is beginning to receive the consideration due its usefulness and its prime importance. The pivotal question, after all, in discussing this subject, is the question of the teacher: "this question of learning, skill, and personal power in the teacher is really that before which all others pale; and when it is fully settled, the knowledge which is of most value will find its way into the schools and the minds of the people as easily and naturally as the sunshine finds its way into every nook of the landscape." Courses of study and methods of instruction lead quickly to the question, "Who are to do the teaching and the supervising?" Like other instruments of vast power, the public school system may be greatly abused, and whether it is or not will depend mainly on the intelligence, education, and devotion of teachers and supervisors. The teacher makes the school. If the teacher be abundantly competent, the school is aboundingly good. No improved text, no new apparatus, no Pestalozzian methods, no frequent examinations, no careful supervision, can take the place of the teacher; and in all discussion of the subject it is needful to bear this truth in mind.1 NORMAL SCHOOLS. Among the most generally approved appliances and methods in vogue for the furtherance of this great end-the professional training of teachers-first in point of efficiency and value are the public normal schools. Much has been said, pro and con, by educators and the public in general regarding the true province and importance of these schools. It is now no longer a question, however, as to the necessity of the normal school to the well-being of a system of State public schools. Nearly all the States now recognize this fact, and in some of the older Commonwealths liberal support is given to from two to eleven of these institutions. It is considered bad economy to expend millions for the support of common schools, and then leave the instruction of the children of the State in unskilled hands. Scholarship, although of primary importance, is no longer deemed a sufficient qualification. There are laws underlying the art of instruction and the science of teaching, the recognition and application of which are as necessary to successful practice as in the case of any other occupation. Perhaps the most convincing proof of the estimation in which these schools are held is the fact of the large and increasing appropriations of money made for their support in those States where they have had a thorough trial. Experience has proved that a normal school under the care and direction of the State is a necessary part of a State educational system; that good schools cannot be had without properly trained 1 City superintendent of public schools, Columbus, Ga. Nebraska State Report. teachers, and to supply these no agency has been found so efficient as properly conducted normal schools where education is taught as a science and teaching as a high art.1 Three new public schools are reported to this Bureau as having been established during the past year. The Territorial Normal School at Tempe, Ariz., owns grounds, buildings, and apparatus valued at $10,000, and received a Territorial appropriation of $5,000. During its first session there were enrolled 53 students and 5 normal gradnates, taught by 1 professor. The State Normal School at Clarion, Pa., was organized in the spring of 1887 with 10 professors and 147 students. This institution received a State appropriation of $30,000, and is valued at $100,000. The Winthrop Training School at Columbia, S. C., owes its origin to the liberality of the Peabody fund, having received for the purpose a donation of $1,500. One student from each county of the State is received free of charge for tuition, which gives it the semblance of a State school. Besides these new schools, enlargements and repairs are reported from many of the older institutions. A notable example is that of Pennsylvania, in which State ten out of eleven State normal schools have received important improvements and additious in the matter of buildings, etc. The Indiana Normal College, an institution under private auspices, has been established at Covington, Ind., and reports 10 professors, 105 students, and 10 normal graduates during the year. Three States will report additional normal schools next year. California is building one at Chico, in the northern part of the State; Alabama is adding another at Troy; and Florida reports provision for a normal school at De Funiak Springs. Legislative provision has been made for one also at Oneonta, N. Y., and one for colored teachers in Kentucky. Nebraska and other States need more schools, besides those already established; Michigan must provide increased accommodations for the students of that State desiring professional training; Nevada asks that its university be conducted for the present as a State normal school; while North Carolina and South Carolina are persistently demanding a normal school in their respective States for the education of white teachers. The demand for professionally trained teachers is still largely in excess of the supply. In some States the need of competent teachers is so urgent that many pupils remain only one year at the normal school before assuming the responsibilities of the profession. COURSE OF STUDY. In regard to the course of study in the State normal schools, the standard in many instances is being gradually raised. The tendency is to abolish preparatory departiments, and to make the schools more strictly professional in character as fast as the higher grammar grades and the high schools can supply properly qualified candidates. In many of the schools there are two courses of study: an elementary-usually of 2 years-for the preparation of teachers for the primary and lower grades of the common schools, and a higher course of 1 or 2 years additional to qualify teachers for positions in the grammar and high school grades. Satisfactory examination in the common school branches is the ordinary qualification for admission as regards scholarship. The age of eligibility ranges from fifteen years and over, though in a few cases, as at the Philadelphia Normal School for Girls, the limit is brought down to fourteen years. Tuition is mostly free to normal students, who are required to pledge themselves to teach after graduation. Text-books are furnished at some schools, and expenses of board, fees, and incidentals are brought down to a low figure at all the schools. Diplomas are awarded at these institutions, and are recognized in many States as first-grade certificates, obviating the necessity of further examination. No common pattern for all normal schools can be established, for they have at all times and in all places accommodated themselves to circumstances, teaching their pupils what they needed as teachers. These schools are created by authority of the different States, and to the scope and plan of organization prescribed by law they must conform. In the summary, by States and Territories, of the normal training provided for teachers will be found an indication of the need of each section and the provision being made to supply it. The courses of study at representative schools of the East, South, and West are herewith given. Courses of study.—Pennsylvania State normal schools. The normal school law of Pennsylvania provides for three distinct courses of study: the e' mentary course, the scientific course, and the classical course. The studies of the elementary and scientific courses may be classified as follows:2 ELEMENTARY COURSE. 1. LANGUAGE.-Orthography; reading and elocution; English grammar; composition; outlines of rhetoric and English classics; elements of Latin (Cæsar, Helvetian war). 1 Catalogue of State Normal School, Monmouth, Oreg. 2. MATHEMATICS.-Mental arithmetic; written arithmetic; algebra; geometry. 3. NATURAL SCIENCE.-Political geography; elements of mathematical and physical geography; physiology; natural philosophy; botany. 4. HISTORY.-History of the United States; Constitution of the United States. 5. THE ARTS.-Penmanship; drawing; vocal music; book-keeping. 6. TEACHING.-School economy; methods of instruction; mental science and methods of culture; history of education; practice of teaching. SCIENTIFIC COURSE. This includes the studies of the elementary course and the following branches: 1. LANGUAGE.-Rhetoric; English composition; English literature; analysis of English classics; Latin (six books of Virgil, four orations of Cicero, and the Germania of Tacitus). 2. MATHEMATICS.-Higher algebra; trigonometry and surveying; analytical geometry; differential and integral calculus. 3. NATURAL SCIENCE.-Geology; chemistry; zoology; optics; acoustics; electricity and galvanism; analytical mechanics; astronomy. 4. HISTORY.-General history. 5. ARTS.-Higher culture in vocal and instrumental music (voluntary). 6. TEACHING.-Mental philosophy; moral philosophy; logic; lectures on the history of education and the philosophy of education. CLASSICAL COURSE. This course includes the studies of the elementary and scientific courses and the usual collegiate course in Latin and Greek. Course of instruction.-Nashville (Tenn.) Normal College. First year.-Primary and grammar school studies, with reference to teaching them, viz: Arithmetic, oral and written; algebra; geography, civil and physical, with map drawing; English grammar and analysis; history of the United States; physiology and hygiene; rhetoric; etymology; book-keeping; free-hand drawing. Second year.-Geometry; plane trigonometry; geology; zoology; botany; general history; moral science; Latin; perspective drawing. Third year.-Spherical geometry and trigonometry; astronomy; chemistry, with work in laboratory; physics; English literature; history and Constitution of the United States, with civil government; Latin; psychology. BACCALAUREATE CLASS. No students are admitted to this class who have not taken the regular senior class studies, etc., at this college. Fourth year.-Conic sections, considered geometrically; analytical geometry, calculus, English literature, Latin, German, psychology, model drawing, designing, etc. Such changes are made in the course from time to time as circumstances require. No student is allowed to take a higher study until that which precedes it in the course has been mastered. The Latin and German languages are taken according to a parallel course, and are taught by the most approved modern methods. Drawing with black-board delineations, English composition, declamation, reading, spelling, defining, penmanship, vocal music, etc., and practice in teaching, receive attention throughout the year. Course of instruction.-California State Normal School, San José, Cal. |