STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS, AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS. PRELIMINARY REPORT. THE following pages exhibit the condition of State Normal Schools and City Training Schools in operation in 1867-8, so far as returns have been received, in response to the Special Circular (No. 10,) of the Commissioner of Education, soliciting information on the whole subject of the Professional Training of Teachers in the several States. A more complete documentary history of the system in each State will be hereafter presented. NORMAL SCHOOLS. PRELIMINARY REPORT. Circular of Commissioner of Education, MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS,....... FRAMINGHAM STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,... Historical Discourse, Quarter Centennial Celebration,.. Inauguration of the first Female Principal of a Normal School,. WESTFIELD STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,.... BRIDGEWATER STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,. SALEM STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,.... NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS,. ALBANY STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, OSWEGO STATE TRAINING SCHOOL,.... MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,..... YPSILANTI STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,.. IOWA NORMAL SYSTEM,..... State University,.... NEW JERSEY,.. Trenton State Normal School; Farnum Preparatory School, ILLINOIS,...... Normal University,.. PENNSYLVANIA, Millersville Normal School,. Edinboro Normal School,. Mansfield Normal School,. Kutztown Normal School, WISCONSIN,.... Platteville Normal School, MINNESOTA..... Winona State Normal School,.. CALIFORNIA, San Francisco State Normal School, KANSAS, Emporia State Normal School,.. MAINE, Farmington State Normal School; Castine State Normal School, MARYLAND,.. Baltimore State Normal School, INDIANA,... Terre Haute State Normal School,. Report on Professional Training of Teachers, by Hon. E. E. White,. WEST VIRGINIA,.... West Liberty State Normal School; Guyandotte State Normal School, DELAWARE,..... Wilmington State Normal School,.. LOUISIANA, New Orleans State and City Normal School.. MISSOURI, St. Louis City Normal School,.. INDIANA,... City Normal and Training Schools,.. No. 10. CIRCULAR RESPECTING NORMAL SCHOOLS, AND THE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, IMPRESSED with the paramount importance of the Teacher, in every institution, and in all systems of instruction, public or private, the Commissioner of Education desires to obtain the fullest and latest information respecting Normal Schools, and all other institutions and agencies which exist in any State, for the preliminary training and subsequent professional improvement of teachers, especially of those connected with public schools. The subject, as will be seen by the accompanying pages, [Classified Index, IV. and XVI.,) has already received from him much attention, and he has a mass of documentary material which he proposes to make available for the fuller discussion, all over the country, of the organization, studies, and methods of the following institutions and agencies: I. STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. Date and circumstances of their establishment-course of instruction, especially in the principles of education and the art of teaching-conditions of admission and graduation—privileges of diploma-whole number of students and graduates-cost, total and annual-results thus far. II. CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS, AND CLASSES. The same class of facts, with particulars as to the methods of training. pupil-teachers in the management and instruction of classes and an entire school. III. TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. The special work of this agency-date of first introduction-annual State appropriation in aid-number held, and attendance each year-system. of conducting, and results. IV. TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS-STATE, COUNTY, AND CITY. Date, and circumstances of establishment-frequency and length of meetings-subjects discussed-results. V. LEGAL EXAMINATION AND RECOGNITION OF TEACHERS. The extent to which information has already been collected on each subject will be seen by reference to Classified Index, Chapters IV. and XVI.; but statistics in all cases since 1864 are desired, and for 1867, are indispensable. Any printed document, which has been instrumental in developing and making effective the idea of the professional training of teachers, and other information and suggestions respecting the above institutions, and other agencies and means specified in the accompanying article on the "Professional Training of Teachers," will be acceptable. Selections from these documents will be given with the sketch of the institution to which they refer. The information, communicated in response to this Circular, so far as relates to State and City Normal Schools, carefully edited. will be published early in 1868. HENRY BARNARD, Commissioner. IV. TEACHERS; NORMAL AND MODEL SCHOOLS; TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. The School and the Teacher in English Literature, The Teacher as an Artist, by Z. Richards, XIV. 69. Lectures to Young Teachers; Intellectual Education, Special Training a Pre-requisite to Teaching, by H. Teachers and their Education, by W. E. Channing, Professional Training of Teachers, XIII, 269. German Views upon Female Teachers, IV. 795. Teachers' Institutes in Wisconsin, VIII, 673. In Holland. Normal School at Haarlem, XIV. 501. Normal Schools in Switzerland, XIII. 313-440. 483. United States-Documentary History of Normal Chapter in the History of Normal Schools in New California. State Normal School, XVI, 628. Kentucky. State Normal School, III. 217. Historical Development of Normal Schools in Europe Maine. State Normal School, XVII. Maryland. State Normal School, XVII. Great Britain. Training Colleges in England and New Jersey. State Normal School, III. 221. Its New York. State Normal School at Albany, XIII Pennsylvania. Professional Training of Teachers, PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS. THE experience of every country where the schools, public, parochial, or private, have attained any high degree of excellence, and the teachers are respected for their personal and professional worth, has demonstrated that early and continued success in the work of instruction, and in the management of educational institutions generally, demands not only certain qualities of mind and character, and an amount and kind of scholarship equal at least to the standard aimed at in the schools, but special preparation in knowledge and methods, and continued efforts at self and professional improvement to obviate the inevitable tendencies of an isolated and monotonous occupation. To secure this preliminary training, and progressive improvement in individual teachers, to exclude from the profession unworthy and incompetent members, to give opportunities of a generous genial culture as the basis of all special studies, and the source of a powerful unconscious tuition in manner, character, and daily life, to protect all who follow the business of teaching from pecuniary anxiety, and increase their means of personal happiness and social influence, various institutions, agencies, and measures, legal and voluntary, have been resorted to, at different times, and in different countries. We here briefly enumerate some of these Institutions and Agencies, which will be more particularly described elsewhere. I. Religious Communities, or Associations of persons, who, having served a severe and prolonged novitiate, or preparatory course to test their vocation, devote themselves for life, and without pecuniary fee, or worldly reward, to the business of instruction. Such were the Benedictines, the Hieronymians, or Brethren of the Common Life, the Oratorians, the Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis of Paola, and other religious orders which have done their work, and given way to the Jesuits, the Ursulines, the Brethren of the Christian Schools, (Institut des Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes,) and other teaching communities, whose schools are found in every country where the Catholic Church is established. The Mother House of |