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NEBRASKA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL

AT PERU, NEMEHA COUNTY.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

THE friends of education in this State had for some years felt the need of an institution for the training of teachers, but no feasible plan was presented till 1867, when the trustees of the Seminary at Peru, Nemeha County, offered the Seminary building to the State for Normal School purposes. The liberal offer was accepted by the State, and the Legislature, by an act passed June, 1867, established the Normal School and located it at Peru. The School is placed under the supervision of a Board of Education which consists of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Treasurer, and five other persons appointed by the Governor.

The site for the Normal School includes sixty acres of land on high rolling ground, in view of the Missouri River for sixteen miles. The building is of brick, eighty feet long, forty feet wide, and three stories high. Though not completely finished and arranged for the use of the School, it was in such a state of progress as to be occupied at the commencement of the term. The estimated value of the site and the building complete is $25,000. The Legislature at its last session appropriated three thousand dollars to aid in fitting up the building, and also twenty sections of land for an endowment fund.

Prof. J. M. McKensie was elected Principal. Two assistants were also appointed, and the School was opened Oct. 24th, 1867.

TERMS OF ADMISSION.

The Board of Education apportion two pupils from each State Senatorial District, who are permitted to attend the Normal School at half tuition, upon presenting to the Principal a certificate of their appointment by the Senator in the proper District, and conforming to the requirements of admission.

Students desiring to enter the Normal Department are required

1st. To be, if males, not less than 17, if females, not less than 16 years of age. 2d. To give satisfactory evidence of good moral character.

3d. To sign a declaration of their intention to devote themselves to school teaching in this State, in form as follows: "I hereby declare my intention to become a teacher in the schools in this State, and agree that for three years after leaving the Normal School, I will report in writing to the Principal of said School, in June and December of each year, where I have been and how employed."

4th. To pass a satisfactory examination before the Principal, in arithmetic, through common fractions; geography, through United States and general questions; English grammar, to syntax; reading, writing and spelling.

The Institution will be open to all persons wishing to attend who will conform to the regulations adopted by the Board of Education.

Tuition in the Normal Department, $8,00, in the Model School, $6,00, and in the Seminary, $8.00 per term; Latin, extra, 2,00; Music on melodeon, $10,00; Ornamental branches at usual rates.

entry, Algebra, Physical Geography, Physiology, Botany, Natural Philosophy, Analysis of one book of Cowper or Thompson, Exposition of Milton's Paradise Lost or Bacon's Essays, and in some two of the following: Geometry, Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Surveying, Zoology, Evidences of Christianity, Rhetoric, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy.

REGULATIONS.

Classes exhibiting the qualifications required to pass an examination for admission, may be admitted at the beginning of each spring and fall term. Individuals may be admitted at any time, upon evincing qualifications corresponding to the attainments of existing classes. Examinations of such as have completed the courses of study shall be held at the close of each spring and fall term. Candidates for graduation must be examined through the entire course in which they wish to graduate.

The certificates of graduation must be signed by the president of the Board of Trustees, the principal of the school, and by the secretary and visiting member of the Board of Education.

Pupils will not be permitted to study branches in the higher course until at least six of the subjects of the first course have been completed to the satisfaction of the teachers of the school; nor then to the neglect of the subjects not so completed. No studies not laid down in the two courses of study, shall be pursued in the Normal Schools.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT RANDOLPH.

This Normal School, which is the first organized under the Statute, was formally opened on the 26th day of February, 1867. The building is well situated in a quiet community; is nearly new and well adapted to the purposes for which it is now used. The former principal of the Grammar school, Mr. Edward Conant, was appointed principal of the Normal School. The number of candidates examined for admission in the spring term of 1867, was thirty-seven, of whom thirty-two were admitted. The whole number of pupils in the summer term was one hundred, and the whole number during the year, one hundred and twenty-five. Six passed the examination for graduation.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT JOHNSON.

The Normal School at Johnson was opened in 1867. The building is new and spacious, having been erected with reference to the health, convenience and comfort of those who may occupy it; the apparatus is in good condition, and well adapted to the wants of the institution; and an excellent library of valuable standard works is provided. Mr. S. H. Pearl was appointed principal of this school. Forty-three students were admitted the first or spring term, six during the summer term, and twenty-four in the autumn term; whole number connected with the school the first three terms, according to the report of the principal, eighty-seven. A class of five young ladies graduated at the close of the spring term.

NORMAL SCHOOLS IN OHIO.

HISTORY.

THE General Assembly of Ohio, in 1836, requested Prof. C. E. Stowe, who was then about to visit the countries of Europe, "to collect during his contemplated tour, such facts and information as he might deem useful to the State, in relation to the various systems of public instruction and education which had been adopted in the countries through which he might pass, and to make a report of the same, with such observations as he might offer, to a future General Assembly." In pursuance of these resolutions, Prof. Stowe examined the educational systems and institutions of England, Scotland, France, Prussia, and the States of Germany, and presented the results of his observations to the General Assembly in a report, in which he states as his belief that it was necessary for the success of the school system that teachers should have the means of acquiring the necessary qualifications, and that there must be institutions in which the business of teaching is made a systematic object of attention. He recommended the establishment of a Normal School or Model Teachers' Seminary, which 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 students.

In answer to a resolution of the General Assembly in 1838, the Superintendent of Schools, Samuel Lewis, presented an elaborate report upon the expediency of establishing a State University or Universities for the education of teachers or other students. He dwelt at some length on the following points: 1st, that there was not a sufficient number of teachers to supply the twelve thousand schools of the State; 2d, that a large number of teachers now employed were not well qualified; 3d, that no measures which had been adopted would supply the demand for wellqualified teachers; and 4th, that the establishment of an institution to be devoted especially to the preparation of teachers, would be the best means to remedy the evil. In evidence on this point, the Superintendent referred to the experience of different countries of Europe, and to those States in this country in which provision had already been made for the education of teachers. He considered it a settled question that there was something peculiar in the art of governing and teaching a school, which might be taught and learned as any other art or profession, and he recommended the establishment of a Normal School, with model and practice schools of different grades, so as to give the students attending, the advantage of observation and practice as well as instruction in principles. In 1841, the Secretary of State, William Trevitt, in his report to the General Assembly, recommended the establishment of Normal Schools as a subject entitled to the serious consideration of the Legislature as well as the friends of education throughout the State. He quoted at

length from the report of the Board of Education in Massachusetts, and from the report of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools in Connecticut, and also from the report of the Secretary of the Board, in support of the measures which he recommended.

The subject was referred to again by Samuel Galloway, Secretary, in his report for 1849, in which he quotes from Prof. Bache, Hon. Horace Mann and others, testimony in favor of institutions for the special education of teachers. Mr. Galloway recommended that a well-conducted Normal School be located at the seat of government, and said such a school would become a standard and model of education throughout the State and give dignity and influence to the profession of teaching.

Again in 1851, Henry W. King, the successor of Mr. Galloway, adducing the example of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Michigan, States in which Normal Schools had been established, recommended that provision should be made for the establishment of as many Normal Schools as the school system of Ohio should demand.

From 1837 to 1855, nearly every educational convention or meeting held in the State urged, in some form, the establishment of institutes and professional schools for teachers. The subject was also earnestly discussed in the "Ohio School Journal" and by other school papers.

In 1855, the State Teachers' Association, despairing of legislative action, undertook the work of establishing a Normal School. Mr. M. McNeely of Hopedale proposed to donate buildings, provided the Association would maintain the institution. This proposition was accepted, and many teachers and others contributed generously to the endowment of the McNeely Normal School. Since 1857 it has been conducted as a private enterprise.

THE SOUTH-WESTERN NORMAL SCHOOL, at Lebanon, was opened in 1855. It has sent out a large number of teachers to supply the schools in the South-western part of the State. Besides providing for the training of teachers, it has a collegiate and business department.

THE WESTERN RESERVE NORMAL SCHOOL, at Milan, was opened in 1858. At the annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association in 1864, Hon. Rufus King, President of the Cincinnati School Board, presented an able paper in which the wisdom and necessity of providing by law for the establishment and support of Normal Schools were strongly urged. The paper, which was in the form of a memorial to the General Assembly, was unanimously approved by the Association, and a committee appointed to secure, if possible, the necessary legislation. This paper was favorably received by the General Assembly, and a joint resolution was passed, instructing the Commissioner of Common Schools to investigate the subject, and report to the next General Assembly "the best plan of organizing one or more efficient Normal Schools in this State." In the discharge of this duty, the Commissioner, Hon. E. E. White, spent several weeks in visiting the Normal Schools of other States; and submitted to the General Assembly the following January (1866,) a special report, recommending a plan of organizing a system of Normal instruction in Ohio.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN OHIO.

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SPECIAL REPORT OF COMMISSIONER (HON. E. E. WHITE), FEB. 10TH, 1866. The following joint resolution was passed March 13th, 1865:"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the Commissioner of Common Schools be and he hereby is authorized and requested to report to the Governor, to be by him laid before the next General Assembly, the organization and results of the best Normal Schools in this country, and so far as may be practicable, in other countries; and also the best plan of organizing one or more efficient Normal Schools in this State."

In compliance with this request of the General Assembly, I respectfully submit the following Report:

During the past summer I spent several weeks in visiting Normal Schools in other States, with a view of making myself more familiar with their organization and the practical results of their training. The following are the schools visited: New Jersey State Normal School, Connecticut State Normal School, Massachusetts State Normal Schools at Westfield and Framingham, New York State Normal School at Albany, and the Training School at Oswego. I also visited the Normal School of the city of Boston and the one at Philadelphia. I also had interviews with Mr. Richards, Principal of the Illinois State Normal University, and Mr. Wickersham, Principal of the Pennsylvania Normal School at Millersville. I had previously visited the State Normal School of Michigan, located at Ypsilanti.

In pursuing my inquiries, I also took special pains to confer with educators of large experience and observation, who are not connected with Normal Schools, either as managers or teachers. I acknowledge myself specially indebted to Hon. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, whose familiar acquaintance with the Normal Schools of this country and Europe enabled him to put me in possession of information of great value. Through his thoughtful courtesy I had the privilege of meeting, at Boston, Rev. James Frazer, of England, who had been sent to this country by the Royal Commission on Education, to investigate our common school system. Mr. Frazer kindly favored me with a full and minute account of the Training Schools of England, and the preparation for admission to them by a system of pupil-teacher apprenticeship.*

The following is Mr. Frazer's account of the pupil-teacher system, as given in an address before the Ohio Teachers' Association at Cincinnati:

"A promising pupil in an Elementary School-boy or girl, as the case may be-of not less than thirteen years of age, is taken and apprenticed to the principal-teacher for a period of five years. Such scholar is employed as a monitor under the principal-teacher, and is called a pupil in relation to the teacher, and a teacher in relation to the school, thus making up the hybrid appellative a pupil-teacher.' At one time the Government paid this pupil teacher, but since the Revised Code,' his salary has been made to devolve upon the local managers. It would begin, perhaps, at $50 a year, and would rise at the rate of about ten dollars a year, to the end of the term. Pupilteachers may be employed in any school, and must be employed, under pain of forfeiture, in all schools where the average attendance exceeds eighty. The school hours are generally five hours a day for five days in the week, and the principal-tencher is bound to give the pupil-teachers one hour's instruction a day out of school hours. You will at once observe that this last feature, as well as the higher rate of salary paid, and the period during which the apprenticeship continues, constitutes the characteristic of the pupil-teacher,' as distinguished from the monitor' of Bell and Lancaster. I should have added that at the close of each year of his apprenticeship, at the annual visit of the Inspector, the pupil-teacher is subjected to a progressive examination, according to a previously defined schedule of subjects, and that his salary for the past year depends upon his passing this examination.

"Well, at the end of this five years' apprenticeship, the pupil-teacher is supposed to make a

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