English Literature, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy.-President. Greek and Roman Literature.-Prof. Currier. Modern Literature and Political Economy.-Prof. Eggert. Astronomy and Mathematics.-Prof. Leonard. History of Physics and Chemistry.-Prof. Heinricks. Geology, Botany and Zoology.-Prof. Parvin. The course of instruction occupies two years. A diploma is awarded to those students who complete the required course of study and training, and give satisfactory evidence of the proper qualifications for teaching. The whole number of students in 1866-7, was: RESULTS. The results of Normal instruction have been very satisfactory, and it is believed that the Normal department of the University has been an important instrumentality in improving the schools of Iowa. The State Teachers' Association, at its annual meeting in 1867, passed a resolution recommending the establishment of a Normal School in each congressional district. A committee was also appointed to memorialize the Legislature, and to adopt measures to secure the object contemplated by this resolution. The chairman of this committee, J. Piper, Superintendent of Schools in Manchester, Iowa, in January, 1868, issued a circular for the purpose of gaining information on the importance of Normal Schools, and their relation to a public school sys OTHER MEANS FOR EDUCATING TEACHERS. Iowa College at Grinnell, has an English and Normal Department for preparing teachers for the public schools of the State. Students in this department can recite with classes in other departments by permission of the faculty. The course of study includes Elocution, Arithmetic, Modern Geography, Ancient and Physical Geography, Grammar, Algebra, Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, Physiology, American and Ancient History, Theory and Practice of Teaching, School Laws of Iowa, and Natural History. Familiar lectures on the best methods of teaching and school government are delivered by members of the faculty. The Ladies' Department of this College is under the immediate supervision of a Female Principal, and under the general direction of the faculty. The course of study is designed not only for thorough mental culture, but also for preparing young ladies to teach. The members of this department recite with classes in other departments, when the studies are the same, and have the privilege of attending the lectures. Training Schools have been established by several of the cities of Iowa. Though these schools were designed primarily to educate and train teachers for the cities in which they are located, they have exerted an important influence upon the schools of other places, and have to a certain extent supplied the place of State Normal Schools. The school at Davenport, which is one of the oldest and most efficient Training School in the Western States, receives all applicants who are able to pass a creditable examination before the county superintendent. The teachers trained in this school have gone out to other places in the State, and have introduced improved methods of instruction in many towns and districts which have not been supplied with teachers from the Normal School. A similar work is performed by Training Schools more recently organized in other parts of the State. Teachers' Institutes have been very successfully maintained in Iowa, and have been so organized and conducted as to afford to young teachers the advantages of a temporary Normal School. NEW JERSEY STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. THE teachers and educators of New Jersey were among the earliest and most earnest to proclaim the necessity of special preparation for the office of teaching and training the young. Prior to 1825, Philip Lindsley, D. D.. before he removed to Tennessee, and while tutor and acting President of the College of New Jersey, in an address delivered at Princeton, anticipated the utterance which he subsequently repeated in his inauguration as President of the University of Nashville: "Our country needs Seminaries purposely to train up and qualify young men for the profession of teaching. We have our theological seminaries, our medical and law schools, which receive the graduates of our colleges and fit them for their respective professions. And whenever the profession of teaching shall be duly honored and appreciated, it is not doubted but that it will receive similar attention and be favored with equal advantages." In the inaugural address in 1825, also referred to, Dr. Lindsley adds: "Though the idea perhaps may be novel to some persons, yet the propriety and importance of such a provision will scarcely be questioned by any competent judges. The Seminarium Philologicum of the late celebrated Heyne, at Gottingen, though a private institution in the midst of a great university, furnished to the continent of Europe during a period of nearly half a century, many of its most eminent and successful classical professors and teachers." "At present, the great mass of our teachers are mere adventurers-either young men who are looking forward to some less laborious and more respectable vocation, and who, of course, have no ambition to excel in the business of teaching, and no motive to exertion but immediate and temporary relief from pecuniary embarrassment; or men who despair of doing better, or who have failed in other pursuits, or who are wandering from place to place, teaching a year here and a year there, and gathering up what they can from the ignorance and credulity of their employers. That there are many worthy exceptions to this sweeping sentence is cheerfully admitted. That we have some well qualiified and most deserving instructors we are proud to acknowledge-and as large a proportion probably in this section of our country as in the older States. Still the number is comparatively small; and the whole subject demands the most serious attention of the good people of this community." In a lecture on the school system of New Jersey, delivered January 23, 1828, in the Chapel of Nassau Hall, Prof. John MacLean (afterwards President) recommended "the establishment of an institution to educate young men for the business of teaching," and in a note examines and refutes the objections to such action on the part of the State. In 1847, Prof. E. C. Wines, then of Burlington, in behalf of a special committee of a Convention of the Friends of Education held at Mount Holly on the 17th of November of that year, prepared a "Report on Normal Schools," which was printed by order of the Convention, and widely circulated. This document contains letters from Gov. Seward, Rev. Dr. Campbell, Bishop Alonzo Potter, Horace Mann, Edward Everett, Prof. Palfrey, Prof. D. P. Page, and John A. Dix, strongly commending the establishment of special schools for teachers on general principles, and on the results of actual experience at home and abroad. The committee add: แ So deeply was Mr. Cousin, the eminent French philosopher and educationist, impressed with this truth, (that good schools could not exist without qualified teachers, and that teachers could only become qualified by previous training, or actual experience)--that he declares it as his opinion that the State has done nothing for popular education, if it does not provide that those who devote themselves to teaching be well prepared. This, in the opinion of the committee, is one of the first duties of a State with regard to schools." "The most efficacious means of securing well qualified teachers is to be found in Seminaries, where a number of young men or women, intending to become teachers, are collected together, receive a common instruction in the subjects required for the schools in which they propose to teach, have lessons given them in the science and art of teaching, and practice the art under intelligent supervision. In this way, will the occupation of teaching be raised to the dignity of a profession. The teacher's respectability will then be secured, by the considerable attainments exacted of him. A strong esprit de corps will be produced among masters, which cannot fail to interest them powerfully in their profession, to attach them to it, in their eyes, and to stimulate them to continued efforts at self-improvement. Thus also will a standard of examination in the theory and practice of education be furnished for all candidates who have chosen a difficult access to the profession. In 1855, Mr. John T. Clark, Principal of the Public School of New Brunswick, read an essay before the State Teachers' Association held at Trenton, (Jan. 18 and 19,) on the "Necessity and means of advancing the interests of common school education in New Jersey," in which he advocates "the establishment of a State Normal School with a Model School attached, wherein our young men and women shall be fitted for teaching, in the same manner as persons are fitted for other vocationsby an apprenticeship, as a business for life;" and in this connection the encouragement of Teachers' Institutes. The same general views were presented by other parties, at the County Teachers' Institutes, Educational Conventions and Associations, and in the reports of the State Superintendent. In 1853-4-5, Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, presented the subject of the professional training and improvement of teachers, at Institutes held in different parts of the State, and particularly in the State House at Trenton, before the State Teachers' Association, on the 18th of January, 1855, in which the experience of the principal States of Europe and of several of the United States in this direction was set forth. In that year the State Normal School was estab lished by the appropriation of $10,000 annually for its current expenses, leaving it to the town where the school should be located, to provide suit. able buildings and outfit in consideration of its local advantages. The Normal School of New Jersey was opened in rooms temporarily provided in the city of Trenton, on the first of October, 1855, with fifteen pupils. The number was increased during the first term to forty-four. A new building, erected by private enterprise, was completed ready for use on the opening of the second term, and was occupied by the school the 17th of March, 1856. The Model School was opened at the same time in rooms prepared for it in the normal building. The prosperity and success of both schools soon made it necessary that additional room should be provided for the model department. Through the liberality of an association of gentlemen of Trenton, a lot adjoining the Normal School was procured, and a Model School building erected and completed in 1857. This was rented to the Trustees of the Normal School for a term of years. The Trustees continued to hire the buildings occupied by the Normal and Model schools until 1865, when the Legislature passed an act authorizing their purchase. As the effect of this act and the contract with the Normal and Model School Associations, the buildings, fixtures, library, apparatus and grounds of both schools, became the property of the State. The lot includes over four acres of ground, and with the buildings and fixtures, is valued at $120,000. The difficulty of obtaining board for the students at reasonable rates, led to the purchase and fitting up of a building which would accommodate the female pupils and teachers who had not homes in the city. By means of this arrangement a considerable reduction was made in the cost of board to the students, and they were brought together near the school under the eye of the teachers. The cost of the boarding houses, which are the property of the State, was $30,000. Besides the Normal and Model departments at Trenton, there is an auxiliary school at Beverly, known as the Farnum Preparatory School. This was founded in 1856, by the munificence of Paul Farnum, Esq., of Beverly, who gave the house and grounds, valued at $50,000, and $20,000 additional in cash, on condition that the school should receive from the State a small subsidiary grant. The Principal of the Normal School is ex-officio Principal of the Farnum Preparatory School. The total amount of property in grounds and buildings used by the Normal School and its auxiliaries, belonging to the State, is $200,000. If to this is added the $20,000 in bonds, the gift of Mr. Farnum, the income of which is for the support of the school, the total is $220,000. The school is under the direction of a Board of Trustees, appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. There are two Trustees for each Congressional District, so that all parts of the State and both political parties are equally represented. This intention has been faithfully observed in the appointment of Trustees, there being five from each political party. |