NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The official documents and school reports found in the foreign Educational Exhibits at Philadelphia show the great prominence given to Normal Schools in Europe. Germany maintains one hundred and seventy, France ninety two, Italy fifty-nine, Austria fifty-six, Switzerland though smaller in area than any one of thirty American States, maintains twenty-six "Teachers' Seminaries." In every country of Europe that professes to maintain universal public education, Normal Schools are regarded as an essential part of the system. In Germany a Normal School diploma is the usual condition of the "teacher's license." Normal Schools in that land have long since ceased to be regarded as an experiment. The first institution of this kind and the germ of the system, since so fully developed in Prussia, was organized in Halle, in 1697, by Augustus Hermann Franke. Hundreds of teachers from different countries of Europe pursued here a two years' course of pedagogics. During the next half century, through the influence of the pupils of Franke, many Normal Schools were established. They have been tried in Austria for more than a century.

Though the first Normal School was established in England through the influence of Lord Brougham and others, less than forty years ago, these schools now abound in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and a chair of Didactics has lately been established in the University of Edinburgh, in which Prof. S. S. Laurie was inaugurated as the occupant in March last. It is a reproach to us, that no similar professorship exists in any American college except the State University of Iowa.

The success of Normal Schools where they have been longest maintained and are best known demonstrates their utility. In Europe, the experiment has been tried in so many countries, under circumstances so diverse, and with results so favorable, as to commend them strongly to public favor. Special preparation is everywhere required for teaching, and it is a permanent business. Once licensed and located, teachers are seldom changed, and never re-examined. A license once given lasts for a life-time. Teaching even a private school without a

certificate of competency is prohibited under heavy penalties. The normal programme of study is liberal and comprehensive. The following is the course of study at the Pedagogium of Vienna:

Language.-The German Language and Literature, the French Language, Grammar Exercises in Dictation, Composition and Conversation, Translation and Analysis of the French Classics. Mathematics.-Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry. Natural History.-Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Human Somatalogy, Morphology, Crystallography, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Exercises in Laboratory.

Geography and History.-General and Special Geography, including Map-drawing and Statistical, Physical, Economical and Political Geography, History, General and Special.

Art Studies.-Design, Linear and Artistic, Figure, Ornament, Architecture, Blackboard Drawing. The Study of Forms, Modeling, Geometrical Constructions, Relief Maps, etc.

Pedagogy.-Psychology and Logic. Methodology, or Methods of Instruction, Educational systems, History of Pedagogy, Practice of Pedagogy.

Dr. Charles Saffray, an eminent Frenchman, who inspected our schools as well as the Centennial Exposition, justly criticised our methods of examining, certificating and changing teachers, saying, "The teacher should be chosen for his merit, proved by diplomas and rigid examinations, and he should feel sure of preserving his position as long as he remains worthy thereof. As long as the United States do not assure to teachers impartiality of nomination and promotion, permanence of functions and security for the future, they will too often. have only inferior or mediocre teachers, and in spite of the most flattering programmes, popular instruction will remain, in many districts, quite insufficient." M. Buisson, charged with the duty of collecting the educational statistics of France, in an able report to the Minister of Public Instruction in the main complimentary to us, says, "The insufficient training of teachers has hitherto been one of the greatest deficiencies in the American school system. The continued change of teachers and the short period during which the majority of them remain in their profession, explain sufficiently why the results are not in proportion to the generous expenditures of the country.

In the Normal Schools of Europe, pedagogics, or the science and art of teaching, are taught both in theory and practice.

Teaching there assumes the character of a distinct profession. No profession more needs a special school for instruction in its appropriate science and methods. The difficulty of the science is equaled only by its importance. It is based on the most comprehensive of all sciences-the philosophy of the mind. It inquires what is the mind, and especially, what is the juvenile mind. It is harder to measure the mind of a child than of the adult. What are its powers and organic laws of growth? What is the relation of the mind to the body and the mutual influence of the highest training of each upon the other? What hygienic rules should be adopted as to ventilation, posture, light, care of the eyes, and school gymnastics? What is the one great end which all means and methods should subserve? What is the order as to time in which the different faculties are to be developed? What is the proper succession of studies? What are the special adaptations of each study to particular necessities and faculties of the juvenile mind? What lessons does the Kindergarten system suggest to the teacher of the public school in regard to the laws of childhood,-activity, love of freedom, need of occupation, love of knowledge, or curiosity, love of play (and how to utilize this instinctive desire and make play an educator, using direction rather than repression), love of power, of achievement, and invention. The practical lesson here, alike in play, work or study, is never to do anything for a child which he can reasonably be stimulated to do for himself, so that learning by doing, he may easily gain true self-reliance. By what incentives may youth be best stimulated to studiousness and right conduct? The philosophy of motive is of great practical importance. Here the teacher should not practice empirically, for children need impulse even more than mere instruction. In the Normal School the skill and experience of experts are made available for novices. Principles and methods learned in long personal service, or drawn from wide observation of the mistakes of others, are given to beginners. They here learn with what tools they are to work, and how to handle them; for what ends they are to work, and on what materials-the plastic faculties of childhood; what difficulties are to be overcome and what mistakes to be avoided.

The necessity of the special training of teachers may be inferred from the fact that the first steps of the pupil are the most important, as well as the most difficult. Lasting aversion to books often springs from poor processes in the primary school, where the question is early decided whether study shall be a pleasure and a privilege, or a dreaded task. The school is what the teacher makes it. The juvenile mind is wax in his hand. To know by what hidden avenues to enter the juvenile mind, and when there, what secret springs of thought and action to touch, is the privilege only of the trained teacher. Pupils often grope in doubt and dejection who might walk in light and joy. They need to be taught how to learn as much as what to learn. As the great majority of pupils are in the common schools, our Normal School aims to train teachers, not so much for High Schools, of which there are comparatively few, as for the district schools and the several departments of our graded schools, where skill and tact are specially needed. Bungling processes are most disastrous in the primary school. Blundering at the start has often put out the eyes of the mind. A believer in the doctrine "the physician born, not made," (a motto on a par with "the teacher born, not made"), once said to a distinguished occulist, who was advocating the hecessity of thorough training in his profession: "Why, doctor, you have attained the highest skill without such aid." The occulist replied, “But I spoiled a bushel of eyes in acquiring the art, and now I can teach others to avoid my blunders." Contrasts most marked I often witness in schools similar in other conditions, except that an expert teaches the one, and a novice experiments in the other. In the one you see order, interest, activity, cheerfulness, and the joy of conscious progress; in the other, confusion, whispering and mischief, or listlessness, indolence, and dislike of study.

To the objection sometimes heard that the State should no more undertake to train teachers than lawyers or doctors, I reply that trained teachers are essential to the success of public schools, and the experience of Europe for more than a century proves that they can be secured in due numbers only by the aid of the State. The emoluments of other callings invite a full supply of candidates. The number of teachers far exceeds

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that of all other professions combined, but the motive to expensive preparation is less. as the compensation and average time of service are relatively small. An adequate supply of teachers, as of military officers, can only be secured by State aid. The military expenses of all the European nations, and even of the American States, vastly exceed the expenditures for Normal Schools. The chief advantage of expensive military encampments and establishments is the training and experience there given to the officers. While liberal expenditures are properly made for their drill, shall not the State also train the teachers who are to shape and control the destinies of the coming generation? Shall the State maintain organizations to teach the art of war, and train men how to kill, but do nothing to prepare teachers for the higher work of giving life and culture to the mind.

The Normal School is an important factor in educational progress. Its instructors aim to keep abreast of the educational movements of the day, to become acquainted with new ideas and methods, new plans and adaptations in school management, apparatus, appliances, and text-books. It is their duty to give the benefit of such investigations to their pupils who, as graduates, may carry progressive ideas into the rural districts.

Extensive observation of schools of all grades, and consultations with friends of education in every town of Connecticut, have confirmed my conviction that the Normal School has greatly improved the condition of our Public Schools, introduced more independence of text-books in recitations, and better methods of teaching, influence, and discipline. diffusion of normal methods by the graduates has been much wider than the circle of their direct labors. The improved processes adopted by one normal graduate are often introduced into many neighboring schools.

The

The whole number in our Normal School from January, 1876, to January, 1877, was 160. The number of graduates the last year was 41. The number in the school at the present

time is 95.