ing sketches of these schools will indicate their origin, character, scope, and intention.

THE CINCINNATI NORMAL SCHOOL.

The City Normal School of Cincinnati was organized September, 1868. It originated in a felt need of better teachers in the lower grades of the city schools. As vacancies in teachers' positions occurred in the higher grades, promotions were made from the lower, the time of the children being considered more valuable with advancing years. The vacancies constantly made in the lower grades by these promotions, were filled with inexperienced girls, and so these grades came to serve the purpose of training schools for teachers for the upper grades.

For several years, the Superintendent of Schools and some of the most progressive members of the Board of Education had felt that some measures must be adopted to prevent the great waste of time and labor in the primary schools through inexperience and lack of professional knowledge. Accordingly, in the summer of 1868 the board voted to open a school for the training of candidates for teachers' positions in the primary grades of the Cincinnati schools.

Notable among the men whose influence gave impulse and character to the movement were John Hancock, Superintendent of Schools, H. L. Wehmer, and J. B. Powell, Esq., members of the Board of Education. The action of the board was unanimous in favor of its establishment.

The school was located in the Eighth District schoolhouse, where it is still in operation. At its opening, two ordinary school-rooms were set apart for its use-one for normal school instruction, and one for practice with children.. The second year three rooms were occupied, and now seven. school-rooms are devoted to the normal school work-two for normal instruction and five for practice in teaching.

The expenses of the school are paid from the common.

schoool fund of the city. Tuition is free to all candidates who state it as their intention to enter the Cincinnati public schools as teachers; to others, it is $60 per annum.

Pupils, to be admitted to the school, must be graduates of the Cincinnati High Schools, or of some school of similar standing, or hold a teacher's certificate from the Cincinnati board of examiners of teachers, or have passed an equivalent examination before the Normal School committee. The subjects upon which an examination is instituted for a teacher's certificate, are mental and practical arithmetic, English grammar, geography, United States history and general history, reading, spelling, natural philosophy, anatomy and physiology, music, drawing, and penmanship. No certificate is issued to an applicant whose average of correct answers in grammar, geography, or written arithmetic, is less than 70 per cent., or whose average on the whole number of marks is less than 70 per cent. This is. the lowest standard of admission to the Normal School.

There is but one course of study, pursued at option in German or English, for German or English positions respectively. The peculiarities of this course are: first, it is planned with reference to a definite purpose-the management and instruction of the lower grades of the Cincinnati public schools; second, it is broad in that it aims to discuss principles of education and deduce methods from them, instead of teaching them empirically; third, it is entirely professional. It consists of methods of teaching all the subjects pursued in the lower grades of the Cincinnati schools, together with the history of education, schoolmanagement, mental philosophy, and the philosophy of education. Special attention is given to penmanship, music, and drawing.

This study is supplemented by practice, each pupil spending about ten weeks-the time varying somewhat with the size of the classes-in the management and instruction of one

of the ordinary lower grade city schools. This time is spent consecutively, and is designed to familiarize the pupil-teacher with the every-day routine of school work in all its phases, as far as this can be done in the time allowed. Criticteachers have constant oversight of the work of the pupilteachers, and make daily criticisms and corrections. The pupil-teachers are marked weekly in a register, open to all, upon the following items: punctuality, promptness, personal bearing, neatness (in person and work), correct use of language, improvement of time, ability to control, ability to instruct, ability to criticise, and ability to profit by criticism.

A diploma from the school secures to its holder the preference over an inexperienced teacher in appointment to a position, there being a rule of the Board of Education that no such person shall be employed while a graduate of the Normal School awaits appointment. It also secures $100 per annum additional salary until the maximum salary is reached. If the graduate teach seven years-the time required to arrive at the maximum salary-she will have received $550 more for services than if she had secured a position without a Normal School diploma.

The first principal of the school was Miss Sara Dugane, called to this position from the City Training School of Boston. She resigned at the expiration of the first year, and was succeeded by the present incumbent, Miss Delia A. Lathrop, then principal of the City Normal School of Worcester, Mass.

The number of pupils in the school for the year 1874-5 was 78-60 English and 18 German. The number enrolled in the practice school was 355. There were 41 graduates of the Normal School-35 English and 6 German. Since the organization of the school there have been 240 graduates.

INSTRUCTORS. —Delia A. Lathrop, Principal; George H. Borger, German Instructor; Helen E. Thorndick, English

Instructor; Clara A. Burr and Pauline Rulison, English Critics; Josephine Knaff, German Critic.

DAYTON NORMAL SCHOOL.

The Dayton Normal School was organized in 1869 to supply the want of better trained and more skillful teachers for the schools of the city. The majority of those seeking positions as teachers came directly from the schools, and being, in many cases, not even graduates of the High School, were found to need further training for the special work of the teacher than was afforded by the ordinary academic course.

It was also found that a system of graded schools adapted to the wants of a growing city, must make provision for a class of pupils having peculiar requirements. A large number of children enter school at the earliest possible age, and leave it as soon as they are large enough to earn their living. It was apparent that mere text-book instruction did but a small part of what was possible in the education of these pupils, and that there was need of methods of instruction which could not be employed with any degree of success by teachers who had not previously studied the principles upon which such methods are based, and acquired somedegree of skill in their use.

The organization of a new school district, with a new building and a corps of picked teachers, presented a favorable opportunity for the establishment of a normal or teachers' training school which would meet this necessity.

The school began in September, 1869, with a class of 28 pupils, and was placed under the charge of Col. F. W. Parker, the principal of the district, with Miss Emma A. H. Brown, as assistant, who gave her entire time to the instruction of the pupils in the theory, and practice of teaching.

The pupils were to be not less than sixteen years old. They were to pledge themselves to teach in the schools of Dayton not less than two years, and their salary for the first year after their graduation was fixed at $450, the third grade. Graduates of the High School were admitted with out examination, all others being required to pass a satisfactory examination in the common English branches.

The course of instruction lasted one year, and included a department of theory and one of observation and practice. The work of the theory department consisted of a general review of the academic branches and the study of methods of teaching, school economy, and criticism lessons. In the department of observation and practice, the pupils having by observation become familiar with the methods of the teacher under whose direction they were placed, were put in charge of classes, at first under the direction of the regular teacher; afterwards, as they developed confidence and ability, they were put in entire charge of the room.

The pupils were divided into two classes, devoting four weeks each to theory and practice alternately-one class being engaged in theory work while the other was in practice. Four rooms of the primary grade were specially set apart as practice rooms, and placed in charge of Miss M. J. Brown, a teacher of long experience in teaching these grades, under whose oversight the work of the rooms was carried on by the normal pupils. When any of these showed special fitness for teaching advanced grades, they were given opportunity for observation and practice in other rooms of the building, under the direction of the regular teacher in charge of the room.

In September, 1871, Colonel F. W. Parker having been appointed assistant superintendent of instruction, Miss Emma A. H. Brown was made principal of the Normal School, being also principal of the district, and Miss M. J. Brown continued as critic-teacher in charge of the first,