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ing establishments: 1. The normal school, or seminary for teachers, a government institution. 2. A preparatory school, subsidiary to the former, and established by the enterprise of its teachers. 3. A seminary school, or burgher school, of four hundred pupils already described. 4. An elementary school for poor children, of two hundred pupils. 5. A school for the deaf and dumb, of twenty-five pupils, established in 1828, and supported by the government. The last three mentioned schools afford practice to the students of the seminary.

The government of these establishments is confided to a director, who is responsible immediately to the provincial school-board in Magdeburg. He has the personal charge of the seminary in which he gives instruction, and of which he superintends the domestic economy, discipline, and policy. He is assisted in the seminary by three teachers, who meet him once a week in conference, to discuss the progress and conduct of the pupils, the plans of instruction, and other matters relating to the school. There are also seven assistant teachers, five for the seminary school, and two for the deaf and dumb institution, who also assist in the seminary itself. Once a month there is a general meeting of the teachers of all the schools just enumerated, for similar purposes.

Applicants for admission are required to produce certificates of baptism, of moral conduct, and of health, besides an engagement on the part of their parents or guardians to pay an annual sum of fifty thalers (thirty-seven dollars) for maintenance. These papers must be forwarded to the director a fortnight before the day of examination. The candidates are examined at a certain time of the year (after Easter), in the presence of all the teachers of the school, and their attainments must prove satisfactory in Bible and church history, the Lutheran Catechism, reading, writing, German grammar, especially the orthography of the language, the ground-rules of arithmetic (mental and written), geography and history, and natural history and philosophy, of the grade of the highest class of a burgher school. They must also be able to play, at sight, easy pieces of music upon the violin. The usual age of admission is eighteen; and the lowest at which they are admissible, seventeen. On entrance they are entitled to free lodging and instruction, and, if their conduct and progress are satisfactory, in general, receive a yearly allowance of twenty-five dollars, which is equivalent, nearly, to the cost of their maintenance. Their clothing and school books are provided by the pupils. The modes of preparation judged most appropriate by the authorities of the seminary are, the attendance on a burgher school, with private lessons from a competent teacher, or entrance into the preparatory establishment at Weissenfels. A gymnasium is considered by no means a proper place for the preparation of pupils, its courses, discipline, and mode of life having a different tendency from that required by the future teacher of a common school.

The admission of new pupils takes place with some ceremony, in presence of the teachers and pupils. The director gives a charge, in which he makes them acquainted with the rules of the school, chiefly those relating to moral conduct, to obedience to the authorities, punctuality, regular attendance at study, school, church, and, in general, on the appointed exercises, due exertion, neatness in their habits, and exactness in the payment of dues to the tradesmen with whom they may deal. They bind themselves to serve for three years after leaving the school, in whatever situation may be assigned them by the regency of Merseburg, or to pay the cost of their education and maintenance. During their stay at the seminary, they are exempted from military service, except for six weeks....

The courses of instruction are, morals and religion, German, arithmetic and geometry, cosmology, pedagogy, terraculture, hygiene, theory and practice of music, drawing and writing. Cosmology is a comprehensive term for geography, an outline of history and biography, the elements of natural history and natural philosophy, all that relates to the world (earth) and its inhabitants. Pedagogy includes both the science and art of teaching. The courses just enumerated are divided among the masters, according to the supposed ability of each in the particular branches, the whole instruction being given by the four teachers. The director, as is customary in these schools, takes the religious instruction, and the science and art of teaching, as his especial province, and adds lectures on the theory of farming and gardening (terraculture), and of health.

The duration of the course of studies has been reduced from three years to two, on account, it is alleged, of the necessity for a more abundant supply of teachers. There are, probably, other reasons, such as the expense, and the fear of over-educating the pupils for their station, which have been influential in bringing about this reduction. There are two classes corresponding to the two years of study. The first year is devoted entirely to receiving instruction; and in the second, practice in teaching is combined with it. In the preparatory school there is likewise a course of two years, and the pupils are divided into two classes. . . .

346. A French Normal School described

(Bache, Alexander D., Report on Education in Europe, pp. 349-53. Philadelphia, 1839) The following description gives a good idea of a typical French normal school for the training of elementary teachers of the time (1837) of Guizot.

The Primary Normal School of Versailles is for the Department of Seine and Oise. It comprises within its ample premises several estab

lishments for the instruction and practice of teachers. The school itself contains eighty pupils under regular instruction throughout the year, and furnishes a two months' course to adult schoolmasters. The establishments for practice begin with the infant school, and rise through the primary to the grade of primary superior. Of the elementary schools, one affords the young teacher an example of the method of mutual, and another of simultaneous instruction. The primary superior school had been recently established, at the date of my visit, in 1837. There is, besides, an evening department for the elementary instruction of adults, taught by the pupils of the Normal School, and also a school of design, which is established here rather for convenience than as properly belonging to the range of the institution.

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The age of admission is, by rule, between sixteen and twentyone, but the former limit is considered too early for profitable entrance. The qualifications for admission consist in a thorough knowledge of the subjects taught in the elementary schools.

The period of instruction is two years. The first year is devoted to the revision of elementary studies, and the second to an extension of them, and to theoretical and practical instruction in the science and art of teaching. The subjects of revision or instruction are, reading, writing, linear drawing, geography, history, the drawing of maps, morals and religion, vocal music, arithmetic, elementary physics, terraculture, and pedagogy.

The religious instruction is given by an ecclesiastic, who is almoner to the school; it includes lessons on the doctrines and history of the church, given twice per week. Protestants are not required to attend these lessons, but receive instruction out of the institution from a minister of their own confession.

Besides the more usual school implements, this institution has a library, a small collection of physical and chemical apparatus, of technological specimens, already of considerable interest, and of models of agricultural implements. There are also two gardens, one of which is laid out to serve the purposes of systematic instruction in horticulture, the other of which contains specimens of agricultural products, and a ground for gymnastic exercises. The pupils work by details of three at a time, under the direction of the gardener, in cultivating flowers, fruits, vegetables, etc. They have the use of a set of carpenters' and joiners' tools, with which they have fitted up their own library in a very creditable way. In the second year they receive lectures on the science and art of teaching, and in turn give instruction in the schools, under the direction of the teachers. Their performances are subsequently criticised for their improvement.

The order of the day in summer is as follows:

The pupils rise at five, wash, make up their beds, and clean their

dormitories, in two divisions, which alternate; meet in the study hall at half past five for prayers, breakfast, engage in studies or recitation until one; dine and have recreation until two; study or recite until four; have exercises or recreation, sup, study, and engage in religious reading and prayers; and retire at ten, except in special cases. Before meals there is a grace said, and during meals one of the pupils reads aloud.

In distributing the time devoted to study and recitation, an hour of study is made to precede a lesson, when the latter requires specific preparation; when, on the contrary, the lesson requires after-reflection to fix its principles, or consists of a lecture, of which the notes are to be written out, the study hour follows the lesson. The branches of a mechanical nature are interspersed with the intellectual. The students of the second year are employed, in turn, in teaching, and are relieved from other duties during the hours devoted to the schools of practice. On Sunday, after the morning service, the pupils are free to leave the walls of the institution. The same is the case on Thursday afternoon. The director has found, however, bad results from these indiscriminate leaves of absence.

347. The Beginnings of Teacher Training in England (Barnard, Henry, National Education in Europe, p. 751. Hartford, 1854) The following brief historical account is descriptive of the beginnings of teacher training in England and Scotland.

The germ of all the institutions for training teachers for elementary schools in England, must be found in the model school and teachers' class of the British and Foreign School Society in the Borough-road, London. So early as 1805, the "training of schoolmasters," in the methods of this school, was made the ground of a subscription in its behalf, and in 1808, it was set forth as one of the cardinal objects of the society. From that time, persons have been admitted every year to the school to observe, learn, and practice the methods of classification and instruction pursued there. Its accommodations as a normal school were insufficient even on the plan of observation and practice pursued there, until 1842, when the present building was completed at an expense of £21,433, toward which the Committee of Council extended a grant of £5000. In the mean time the National Society was pursuing a similar plan in its model school at Westminster; and the necessity of training well-qualified teachers by means of a special course of instruction and practice was ably discussed, and the mode and results of such training as exhibited on the continent, and especially in Prussia, were ably advocated in parliament, pamphlets, reviews, and the daily press. The Quarterly Journal of Education, and the publications of the Central Society of Education, and especially the Prize Essay of Mr. Lalor, set forth this necessity, and the experience of other

countries in a very able manner. Lord Brougham, in his whole public life the early and eloquent advocate of popular education, in a speech in the House of Lords on the education of the people on the 23d May, 1835, remarked:

"These seminaries for training masters are an invaluable gift to mankind and lead to the indefinite improvement of education. It is this which above all things we ought to labor to introduce into our system. . . . Place all normal schools-seminaries for training teachers -in a few such places as London, York, Liverpool, Durham, and Exeter, and you will yearly qualify five hundred persons fitted for diffusing a perfect system of instruction all over the country. These training seminaries will not only teach the masters the branches of learning and science in which they are now deficient, but will teach them what they know far less, the didactic art the mode of imparting the knowledge they have, or may acquire the best method of training and dealing with children, in all that regards temper, capacity, and habits, and the means of stirring them to exertion, and controlling their aberrations."

The speaker, though he failed in this, as well as in former, and subsequent efforts in parliament, to establish a system of national education, according to his own views, has lived long enough to see thirty-six normal schools, or training colleges in England and Wales, four in Scotland, and one in Ireland, in successful operation; and both the quantity and quality of elementary instruction greatly improved. These results have been realized mainly through the action of the Board, or Committee of Council on Education, first appointed in 1839.

One of the first objects proposed for the consideration of the Board, was a normal, or model school, in organizing which they were advised that "it is her Majesty's wish, that the youth of this kingdom should be religiously brought up, and that the right of conscience should be respected." The committee experienced so much difficulty in devising the plan of a normal school, under their direction, and in reconciling conflicting views of religious communions, that the subject was postponed, and the sum of £10,000 granted by parliament in 1835 toward the erection of such a school, was distributed in equal proportions to the National Society, and the British and Foreign School Society, to be applied by them for this purpose.

With the aid of this grant, the British and Foreign School Society proceeded to provide suitable accommodations for a class of eighty normal pupils, in connection with the model schools in the Boroughroad. The building was completed in 1842, at an expense of £21,433. The National Society commenced, in 1840, the erection of a training college for seventy-four masters of schools in connection with that Society, at Stanley Grove, in Chelsea, two miles from Hyde Park Corner. . . .

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