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CALIFORNIA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

THE foundation of the Public School System of California was laid in 1849. Ten years after, the Superintendent, Hon. Andrew J. Moulder, recommended among other measures of improvement, the establishment of a State Normal School. He still further urged this measure in 1860, and in 1861 asked for a direct State appropriation of five thousand dollars for such school.

In 1862, the Legislature passed an act establishing a State Normal School in the city of San Francisco, and made an appropriation for that purpose of $3,000. The appropriation for 1863-64 was $6,000, and for 1864-65, $8,000.

The Normal School was opened in a class-room of the San Francisco High School building, on the 23d day of July, 1862, under the superintendence of Mr. Ahiru Holmes, who continued Principal until July, 1865. Mr. George W. Minns was elected Principal in June, 1865, and took charge of the school on the 10th of July, following.

The general character of this school and the aim of its officers may be seen by the following extract from the first report of Mr. Minns to the Trustees in 1866. He says:

Normal Schools are not high schools or academies, established for the purpose of enabling a certain number to pursue the higher branches of learning; but their object is direct, plain, and practical; it is to benefit the people at large, by providing for the common schools a class of well trained teachers. The course of study is therefore at present almost entirely restricted to those branches which are taught in the common schools. And this is, in my opinion, as it ought to be. The Normal School was never intended to attempt to give an extended course of instruction in the arts and sciences, or in the languages; but its purpose is—by rendering its pupils thoroughly acquainted with the fundamental branches of a good English education, by familiarity with the best methods of teaching, by a knowledge of the principles and methods of human culture, and of the true order of study, by endeavoring to give them an insight into human nature, so as to enable them to perceive the best methods of gov. ernment and discipline, and, lastly, by their applying what they learn in the actual teaching and governing of classes in the training school-its purpose is, by these means, to send into the common schools throughout the State a class of teachers whose excellence, ability, and aptitude for teaching will be at once felt and acknowledged. I have no doubt, also, that the Normal School, as it increases the number of its pupils, will, in course of time, cultivate an esprit de corps among its members which will be beneficial alike to teachers and to the community. No one can fail to see the advantages that will result to the cause of education from having dispersed over the State teachers who are mostly graduates of one institution, and therefore feel a friendly interest in one an other's success and welfare, who would often correspond and interchange opin ions concerning the best methods of advancing the cause in which they were all engaged.

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