CHAPTER IV.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The State of Ohio has, from its earliest history, been second to none in advanced ideas upon education, and in the zeal and well-directed activity of its large body of leading teachers and school officers.

As early as the year 1817, before Connecticut or Massachusetts began to agitate the question of State Normal Schools, Gov. Worthington, of Ohio, opened his message to the General Assembly by the recommendation to establish a thorough, system of elementary education. In order to render such a system efficient, he argues that teachers must be employed. "whose moral character and other qualifications fit them to enlighten the minds and to shape the morals of the rising generation. If we expect in our youth 'religion, morality, and knowledge,' suitable teachers must be employed to produce this effect." He then makes the following recommendation for the establishment of a State Normal School, which was probably the first official recommendation of the kind made in the country:

"With a view to effecting this desirable object, I recommend to the consideration of the General Assembly the propriety of establishing, at the seat of government, a free school, at which shall be taught the different branches of an English education, at the expense of the State, to such number of boys, the children of parents unable to educate them, and no others, as the Legislature may deem proper; that whenever young men thus educated shall become qualified for that purpose, they shall, when proper salarfes are furnished them, have the preference of employment in the public schools of the State, and shall

be obliged to serve as teachers of schools until they are twenty-one years of age; and afterward, so long as they conduct themselves well, shall have the preference of employment."

Although these recommendations of the Governor were not carried into effect by the General Assembly, they quickened thought and provoked discussion. During the succeeding twenty years the interests of the common school system were the special care of the State. Early in the year 1836, the General Assembly of Ohio passed a resolution to the effect that Calvin E. Stowe, then professor in Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, "be requested to collect, during his tour in Europe, such facts and information as he may deem useful to the State, in relation to the various systems of public instruction and education which have been adopted in the various countries through which he may pass, and make report thereof, with such practical observations as he may think proper, to the next General Assembly."

A very elaborate report was made by Prof. Stowe, under date of December 18, 1837. Under the head of Normal Schools, he recommends:

"First: The science and art of teaching should be made a regular branch of study in some of the academies and high schools.

"Second: In populous towns there should be large model schools, under the care of the most able and experienced teachers that can be obtained; and the candidates for the profession, who have already completed the theoretic course at the academies, should be employed in this school as monitors or assistants, thus testing all their theories by practice, and acquiring skill and dexterity under the guidance of their head masters. While learning they would be teaching, and no time or effort would be lost.

"Third: To give efficiency to the whole system, to present a general standard, and a prominent point of union, there should be at least one model teachers' seminary at some central point-as at Columbuswhich should be amply provided with all the means of study and instruction, and have connected with it schools of every grade, for the practice of the students under the immediate superintendence of their teachers."

The recommendation of Prof. Stowe suggested the plan of

opening the Western Reserve Teachers' Seminary at Kirtland, Lake county, in 1838. This excellent normal school was under the management of Dr. Asa D. Lord for eight years from the spring of 1839, and sent out a large number of teachers into the better class of schools in Ohio and elsewhere. Its influence remains to this day in the professional career of some of the prominent educators of the State.

In the year 1837, the office of State Superintendent of Common Schools was created, and Samuel Lewis was elected to its duties, which he discharged for the following three years. No educator, not even Horace Mann himself, to whom Massachusetts is indebted for her normal schools, ever felt more deeply the necessity for a body of trained teachers for the schools than did Samuel Lewis. He believed it to be the duty of the State to provide suitable instruction for those who were to have the care of its youth. His superior devotion to the educational interests of the State, and his acknowledged wisdom, procured for him the distinction of being the subject of the following resolution, passed by the General Assembly of Ohio, March 19, 1838.

“Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the Superintendent of Common Schools be, and he hereby is requested to report to the next General Assembly :

"I. Upon the expediency of establishing a State university or universities, for the education of teachers and other students.

"II. If he shall deem it expedient to establish such university or universities, then upon the subjects of the proper system therefor, and the proper location thereof.

"III. Also, upon the proper mode of supporting the same, the probable expense thereof to the State, and such other views and information in relation to the subject generally, as he may deem it proper to communicate."

In compliance with this resolution, Mr. Lewis made a most valuable report, February, 1839, in which he considers the resolution as embracing two distinct propositions, viz. ; the establishment of a university for "teachers,” and a uni

versity for "other students." Under the former of these propositions, he considers the following questions :

"1. Is there a deficiency in the number of teachers in our State? "2. Are there any defects in the qualifications of those now filling the place of teachers?

"3. What are these defects?

4. What measures are now adopted to supply a proper number of teachers of sufficient qualifications, and how far will such means supply the demand?

"5. What additional measures are required and will a state institution be the best means to effect the object?”

The following extracts are made from the discussion of the last question :

"It may now be considered a settled question that there is something peculiar in the art of governing and teaching a school, which may be taught or learned as any other art or profession. There are, to be sure, many excellent self-made teachers, who have become so by long experience and labor, as there are many self-made men who are eminent in all the professions, and in neither case can it be pretended that the success of one man, without superior advantages, would justify us in abolishing those institutions which are intended to aid students in such professions, or that because a few succeed in spite of their disadvantages, therefore all men can do so. If one man has learned to govern a large school with very little corporal punishment, he can teach another with ordinary capacity the same art. If one man has learned how to adapt his instructions to the great variety of minds presented in the school-room, he can teach others to do so. If he has learned a mode of approaching each mind, in such a manner as to wake it up and secure at once a love of himself and the study; if he has found the art of making children reason at an early age; these, as well as all other important acquisitions in the business of teaching, can be imparted to others of ordinary capacity. Heretofore teachers have all acted without associated effort, each sought his own and no other interest, his experience died with him, and no record was preserved of improvements, as in other professions. To this cause may be attributed the lack of improvement in a profession so important to all our interests, individually and collectively.

"With the experience of other nations and other states, as well as the success which has attended individual experiments in our own State before me, I have made up my mind, that with teachers educated for the business, sufficient to supply all the districts in our State, we

should, with the same money that is now expended, secure to our children an education far exceeding in amount, and far superior in quality to what is generally furnished. The advantages of associated power are felt in every other department, and may also be felt in this. That the interest of the people demands some provision for the preparation of teachers, I have no doubt; but what shall be the specific plan ultimately to be adopted by the Legislature, is a matter much more difficult to decide.

“One plan is, to have county seminaries, by appropriating to each county a certain amount of money, on condition that the counties would severally add an equal sum or any other proportion, and thus furnish a central high school for this purpose in each county under such regulations as may be prescribed.

"Another plan is, to divide the State into some eighteen or twenty educational districts, and establish a normal school at some central point in each district.

"Another plan proposes to appropriate certain sums of money to each of the different colleges that will undertake to organize in their institutions a teachers' department, and instruct a certain number of persons as teachers of common schools.

"A fourth plan is, to make a commencement by establishing at Columbus one normal or model school for the preparation of teachers. "An experiment may be made here with very little expense, and until the experiment is made, it may not be prudent to expend a large sum for buildings or otherwise. Buildings for the present could be rented, or what would be better, as the city of Columbus is about to erect large school-houses, it would, no doubt, willingly allow the State to use three or four rooms for the teachers' school. As the students would all be teachers, they could, without additional expense, instruct all the youth in the city according to the most approved system. Indeed, a normal school can not successfully be established, unless it be in connection with schools of the different grades from primary schools up to those esteemed the highest. If some plan like this should be adopted, it would require not more than three professors, until the success attending the enterprise should induce an extension of the work. The students attending should all be admitted free of tuition charge, and the benefits made equal. Each county should be entitled to send one at least. A difficulty is presented in providing boarding and other expenses. But few of those who are to become school teachers have the means of paying heavy charges, even if the tuition is gratuitous, nor is the inducement to become a teacher at present so great as to justify very heavy expenses for this purpose. Females would probably form a large number of the students for teachers, if they had the means for support while attending. Under these circumstances it would certain