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: L. STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. Date and circumstances of their establishment-course of instruction, espe cially 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 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 Nem Chapter in the History of Normal Schools in Ne Kentucky. State Normal School, III. 217. Historical Development of Normal Schools in Europe Maine. State Normal School, XVII. and America, XIII, 753–770. Germany and other European States-Number, Loca- Great Britain. Training Colleges in England and Maryland. State Normal School, XVII ers' Institutes, XV. 387. New Jersey. State Normal School. III. 221. È Aims, by D. Cole, V, 835. Faruum Preparin School, III, 397. New York. State Normal School at Albany, XILI 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 each of these orders, where the novitiate is served, is, strictly speak ing, a Normal School, having its norma, or rule or pattern of professional life and practice. It is at the same time the home, where help, and rest and health are sought by its members in need, exhaustion, and old age. Several of these Houses preceded the establishment of Teachers' Seminaries which are the creation of the State. II. Institutions, supported or aided by the government for the purpose of training teachers for the schools which the State has undertaken to establish to protect itself from the ignorance of any portion of its people, or to add to its resources of strength and production the cultivated intellect and restrained passions of all its citizens. These institutions are called by different names, and are organized and managed on different plans in different countries, but in all, their aims and functions are special, viz., to give to young men and women, found qualified in age, character, and scholastic attainments, a practical knowledge of the labors and duties of the schoolIn most of the German states, where they first received governmental recognition, they are called Teachers' Seminaries or Normal Schools, although the latter designation was originally applied in Austria, to a select class in certain prominent schools composed of pupils who were receiving special instruction, and at the same time were employed as assistants in the school. In England they are called Training Colleges. room. III. Classes, or departments in one or more of the best schools in the chief towns, composed of scholars who have mastered the studies of the school, and show an aptness and desire to teach. These pupils receive additional and special instruction, and are employed at a small and increasing compensation, first as assistants, then as under masters, and finally as head masters. This plan of training teachers for the public schools, especially in large towns, is the main reliance of the government in Austria and Holland, and with some modifications by which the best pupil-teacher become Queen's Scholars in the Training Colleges, in England. It is an admirable preliminary test and preparation of candidates for the regular Normal School, and might profitably be made supplementary to the latter. IV. Courses of Lectures in all Higher Seminaries of Learning on the History, Principles, and Art of Education-designed particularly for such students as propose to teach or may be called on to organize and administer schools. Such lectures are delivered in many universities of Germany, and theological students are required to attend as a necessary preparation for the right performance of the duties of school inspectors and local school committees, which are always, although not exclusively, composed of clergymen. Such instruction, whether given by lectures, or by class-book and recitation, should be deemed essential to graduation in any College or Academy or High School, which are the natural sources to supply teachers to the schools below. Originally the degree of Bachelor and Master of Arts were evidence of the scholarship and authority of the holders to establish, teach, and govern schools. Such knowledge should enter into the training of all liberally educated American citizens, whose services are in constant demand as trustees and committees of schools of different grade. When such courses are supplemented by practical training in a Normal School, it forms a valuable part of the professional education of a teacher. V. Itinerating Normal Agents and Organizers of Schools, to hold Teachers' Institutes, to act as Inspectors of Schools, assist in the establishment of new institutions, and imparting life and efficiency to schools which have run down under inefficient teachers, and bring up to a normal standard the schools and the public sentiment of particular districts. The efforts of an indefatigable Normal Agent like William S. Baker, so highly appreciated in Connecticut and Rhode Island, or of a School Organizer like those sent out by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, or the British and Foreign School Society, by familiar conversation with teachers, and practical illustrations in their schoolrooms, of improved methods of arranging the studies, and conducting schools will reach more widely than a Normal School. VI. Teachers' Institutes, or gatherings of teachers, both for conference and instruction, for a period of not less than one, nor more than four weeks, in successive years in different localities, and including in its operations school officers and parents. Such gatherings of teachers, old and young of both sexes, and of schools of different grades; in such numbers as will develop the sympathies and power of a common pursuit, and yet not so large as to exclude the freedom of individual thought and action; for a period of time, long enough to admit of a systematic plan of operations, and yet not so protracted as to prove a burdensome expense, or an interruption to other engagements; under the direction of men, whose claim to respect and continued attention is their large experience and acknowledged success as educators and teachers; in a course of instruction, at once theoretical and practical, combined with opportunities of inquiry, discussion, and familiar conversation-such gatherings of teachers so organized and conducted as to exclude professional jealousy, and at the same time to enlist the coöperation and attendance of school |