Public School at Visalia has been closed for this reason, during the last four months.

The Superintendent of Mendocino County writes as follows:

"A number of the districts have positively refused to comply with the law requiring Trustees to take the oath of allegiance. The Trustees of· Ukiah District positively refused to employ any Teacher who would take the oath. This district is, perhaps, of more consequence than any other one in the county, because there are more Schools in it, and they reside so near together that a good School might be maintained the year round, could the citizens have the co-operation of the Trustees..

"The Trustees of Long Valley have also refused to allow their Teacher to take the oath, and have allowed their funds to remain in the Treasury. Count's District is in the same condition, and the Teacher has failed to return any report.

"Of course, if this position is maintained another year it will disorganize all the districts by their forfeiting the public money. Of the spirit of disloyalty which induces them to place themselves in this attitude I cannot speak in terms of too severe condemnation. In Ukiah District, more than half the scholars who attend the Public Schools are the children of loyal parents, but the voters outnumber us, so that it is impossible to elect Trustees who will perform their duty. I regret to say that we have a large element in our population in this county who have but little ambition to improve or even to maintain our present School system. Of this you may be made aware by what I have said above of their determination to elect none but the most ultra Secessionists for Trustees. I regret, moreover, to say that our Board of Supervisors largely participates in this feeling of disinclination to sustain the School system.

I therefore recommend to the Legislature that an act be passed disqualifying every Trustee for office who shall refuse to comply with the law requiring the employment of loyal Teachers and none others. Such an Act would undoubtedly drive a large number of Trustees out of office, but their places can be better filled, and existing evils ought to be remedied at any cost. If Secessionists are willing to sacrifice themselves, it is no reason why they should steal the intellectual bread out of the mouths of their children by closing the Schools.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

Under an Act of the Legislature, passed May, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, this institution was opened on the twenty-third of July, in a small basement room of the San Francisco High School, beginning its first term with only six pupils. Shortly after, it was removed to larger rooms on Fourth Street, near Mission, and two model classes were organized in connection with it. The first year of the School closed on the fourteenth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, with an examination conducted by a committee of the Board of Trustees. Four students graduated and received Diplomas, all of whom are now successfully en

gaged in teaching. The School was conducted during its first year at an expense of four thousand two hundred dollars, ($4,200,) State scrip, equivalent in cash to two thousand eight hundred dollars ($2,800). Its efficiency was impaired by two serious events-want of money, and want of a suitable building. It has recently been removed to a building on the corner of Post and Kearny Streets, somewhat better than the former, but by no means adapted to the wants of such an institution. The rent of the building and the salaries of the Teachers of the model classes are paid by the City of San Francisco.

Without this liberal assistance from the Board of Education, the institution would have necessarily proved a failure. The School now numbers fifty members. Three model classes are connected with it, and three more will soon be organized. In these classes the pupils of the Normal School are required to learn the practical details of School-room duty under the supervision of Teachers familiar with the most approved methods of modern training Schools. The State Normal School is des tined to become one of the active educational agencies of the State; and in order that it may be placed on a sound basis, an appropriation of eight thousand dollars ($8,000) will be needed for the sixteenth fiscal year. This will be only half the amount annually expended on the State Reform School, for training an average number of less than twenty inmates; and is not the training of fifty Teachers, who will soon go out to take charge of fifty Schools, teaching two thousand scholars, quite as important to the State?

The advantages resulting to the Public Schools of the State, from a Normal School, are so self-evident, that no argument seems to be needed to enforce them. The liberal provision made in older States for such institutions, affords conclusive evidence of their usefulness.

The first Normal School in the United States was established at Lexington, Massachusetts, in eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, and it opened with three students. Massachusetts now has four Normal Schools-at Framingham, Bridgewater, Westfield, and Salem. The aggregate number of students who had been connected with these Schools up to Decem ber, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, was four thousand eight hundred and thirty, of whom two thousand and eighty-four graduated. The total amount expended by the State for the support of these institutions since their first organization, was one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars ($185,000); and the total outlay, including donations by individuals, was two hundred and ninety-four thousand dollars ($294,000). The superior condition of the Massachusetts Public Schools is owing, in no small degree, to this eminently wise and judicious expenditure. It has given the State a well trained body of Teachers, who are paid higher average salaries than in any other State. Massachusetts can afford to pay good Teachers good salaries, because she wastes no money on incompetent ones. Her annual expenditures for all educational purposes, amount to more than three millions of dollars; her economy is practised in employing skilful Teachers.

The report of the Board of Education, eighteen hundred and sixtytwo, says:

"Through the agency of the Normal Schools, more than by any other means, the Board is enabled to exert an influence upon the Common Schools."

The report of the Board, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, says:

"The Normal Schools are performing their work with their usual efficiency and success. The Principals in all these Schools are men of tried experience, sound judgment, and possessed of excellent qualifications for their work. Their many years of success, and the large numbers of excellent Teachers they have prepared for service, are their best testimonials. The number of pupils in attendance the past, has been somewhat smaller than the previous year; but the reduction has been owing, chiefly, to the departure of young men to the war. Three quarters of the whole number of young men in the Normal School at Westfield, during the year, are now in the army. Nearly the same proportion are absent from the Bridgewater School, also for the same reason."

The Secretary of the Board remarks:

"The fact that our Public Schools number over four thousand five hundred, and are giving employment to more than seven thousand Teachers, while the Normal Schools are supplying little more than one hundred annually, is conclusive against any reduction of their number or of their force, and furnishes abundant reason for a more liberal bestowal of means upon them, to the end that with enlarged facilities, higher and broader courses of study and mental training, they may supply Teachers in greater numbers and of a higher grade, to meet the constantly growing wants of the Commonwealth."

The State Normal School of New York was established at Albany in eighteen hundred and forty-four, as an experiment, for five years, and it has proved so successful that the policy of sustaining it has never been questioned. The total number of students who have been in attendance since it was established is three thousand eight hundred and fiftyfour, of whom one thousand three hundred and thirteen have graduated. The whole number in attendance during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two was two hundred and ninety-three. Connected with the School is an Experimental or Model School, in which the pupilTeachers of the Normal School give instruction. A Model Primary School, for the purpose of illustrating the method of Object Teaching, was established in eighteen hundred and sixty-one. The Normal School building was erected by the State at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.)

The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Hon. Victor M. Rice, says, in his last report, eighteen hundred and sixty-three:

"The graduates and undergraduates are represented by local School officers to be doing valuable service, not only in the Schools in which they are employed, but as zealous workers, imparting their knowledge of the proper modes of instruction to their associates in Teachers' Institutes and Associations, who in turn apply the same to the Schools under their charge, and thus the influence of this School is diffused.

"Wherever institutions of this character have been established and fairly supported, their fruits are too apparent and useful to need commendation; and it is suggested to the Legislature that other Normal Schools might be established in localities whose public-spirited inhabitants would furnish, at their own expense, the necessary sites and buildings; and that however efficient one such School may be, it could not have been expected to meet the demands of a State which requires the employment annually of more than twenty thousand Teachers."

The State Normal School of Connecticut, located at New Britain, was established in eighteen hundred and fifty, and has graduated, up to the present time, one hundred and sixty-eight Teachers. It has a Model School connected with it.

The Rhode Island Normal School, located at Bristol, was established at Providence in eighteen hundred and fifty-four.

The New Jersey State Normal School was organized at Trenton in eighteen hundred and fifty-five, sustained by an annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.) It has a Model School Department, and, connected with it, the Farnum Preparatory School at Beverly, founded by the late Paul Farnum, who erected the buildings at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, ($30,000,) and endowed it with twenty thousand dol lars ($20,000) more. The total number of graduates, up to January, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, was one hundred and fifty-eight, of whom one hundred and fifteen were teaching at that time. During the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two a department for military instruc tion was added to the School. A special department for Object Teaching was organized in eighteen hundred and sixty-one.

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, in eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, passed a law dividing the State into twelve Normal School Districts, and provision was made for establishing, by private subscription, a Normal School in each. The Schools established at Millersville and Edenboro receive an annual State appropriation of five thousand dollars ($5,000.) The cost of building, grounds, etc., of the School at Millersville, was sixty thousand dollars, ($60,000,) and the annual expense is fifteen thou sand dollars ($15,000.) The number of pupils in eighteen hundred and sixty-one was two hundred, educated at a cost of one hundred and fortysix dollars ($146) per annum.

The Girls' High School in Philadelphia has connected with it a Normal Department and a School of practice for pupil-Teachers.

Ohio has no State institution, but has two Normal Schools, well endowed by private munificence.

The Michigan State Normal School, of Ypsilanti, founded in eighteen hundred and fifty-two, numbering three hundred students, bas an experi mental deparment, and is conducted at an annual expense of eleven thousand dollars ($11,000.)

In Iowa, the Normal School is a department of the State University, at Iowa City.

The State Normal School of Minnesota, at Winona, receives an annual appropriation from the State of two thousand dollars ($2,000,) and is held in a building erected by the State at a cost of five thousand dollars ($5,000.)

The State Normal University of Illinois, at Bloomfield, was established in eighteen hundred and fifty-seven. The building is the very finest of the kind in the United States, and was erected at a cost, including fix tures, of one hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars ($182,000.) More than six hundred pupils have been connected with the School since its organization. The number of pupils in eighteen hundred and sixty-two was one hundred and thirty-eight in the Normal School, one hundred and nine in High and Grammar Department of Model, forty-four in Intermediate and Primary, making a total of two hundred and ninety-one. Richard Edwards, the Principal, at the close of his able report, says: "These are pre-eminently Schools of the people. To maintain a NorSchool at the expense of the State, is to use a portion of the public

funds for the direct benefit of every citizen. The Teachers whom it educates are to go forth into the remotest and most secluded School districts. Every poor man who has a child to educate is, by the influence of such a School, to see that child raised more nearly to an equality, in culture and intelligence, with that of his wealthy neighbor. Its natural effect is, by improving the qualifications of Public School Teachers, to make these Schools as good as the best, and thus to place within the reach of the poorest child as thorough and useful an education as the wealthiest can purchase for money."

When other States find Normal Schools an indispensable part of the Common School system, shall California fail to sustain one?

The State has built a Reform School Building at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000); ought she to hesitate about the appropriation of eight thousand dollars ($8,000) for reforming methods of instruction and economizing labor in the School-rooms? Shall a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) be expended for erecting buildings for educating fifty or sixty Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, and nothing be appropriated for providing Teachers to train thousands of children in the full use of all their faculties?

If we turn to the old world, we find Normal Schools held in still higher repute than in our own country. Prussia has five hundred of them; Germany and France are full of them, and in most of the National Schools of Europe normal training is an indispensable requisite for a Teacher.

"On reviewing a period of six weeks," says Horace Mann, "the greater part of which I spent in visiting Schools in the north and middle of Prussia and Saxony, (except, of course, the time occupied in going from place to place,) entering the Schools to hear the first recitation in the morning, and remaining until the last was completed at night, I call to mind three things about which I cannot be mistaken. In some of my opinions and inferences I may have erred, but of the following facts there can be no doubt:

"First-During all this time I never saw a Teacher hearing a lesson of any kind (excepting a reading or spelling lesson) with a book in his

hand.

I

Second-I never saw a Teacher sitting while hearing a recitation. "Third-Though I saw hundreds of Schools, and thousands-I think may say, within bounds, tens of thousands of pupils-I never saw one child undergoing punishment, or arraigned for misconduct. I never saw one child in tears from having been punished, or from fear of being punished.

During the above period I witnessed exercises in geography, ancient and modern, in the German language-from the explanation of the simplest words up to belles-lettres disquisitions, with rules for speaking and writing; in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, surveying, and trigonometry; in bookkeeping; in civil history, ancient and modern; in natural philosophy; in botany, and zoology; in mineralogy, where there were hundreds of specimens; in the endless variety of the exercises in thinking, knowledge of nature, of the world, and of society; in Bible history and Bible knowledge; and, as I before said, in no one of these cases did I see a Teacher with a book in his hand. His book-his books-his librarywas in his head. Promptly-without pause, without hesitation—from the rich resources of his own mind, he brought forth whatever the occasion demanded.