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The Normal School fund amounted in 1867 to $600,000 already invested and paying seven per cent. interest, and 750,000 acres of land yet to be sold and the avails added to the fund, which will thus be increased, it is supposed, to amount to a million and a half of dollars.

The Normal department of the University has been reorganized under the law of 1867, and is now practically a college course for young women. Students in this department may also attend all the University lectures, and may, in addition to the course of study prescribed for graduation, elect any study in the College of Arts and Letters.

Five Normal Schools have already been located-one at Platteville, Grant County; one at Whitewater, Walworth County; one at Oshkosh, Winnebago County; one at Sheboygan, Sheboygan County; and one at Stoughton, Dane County. These schools are under the immediate supervision of the Board of Normal School Regents appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. There is also an Examining Committee appointed annually to visit and examine the Normal Schools. Hon. John G. McMynn, in his report for 1866, says:

"The development of our Normal School system is the most difficult educational problem that presents itself for solution at the present time. To make these schools promote the interests of public education, to so conduct them as to secure for them the confidence of the people, to so manage them as to train teachers in them for the common schools, to guard against the tendency to convert them into academies or high schools, to render them so attractive and so efficient as to bring large numbers of teachers under their influence, and to carry them on with such economy as to keep their expenses within the income provided for their support, will demand the watchful care of the people, the heartiest cooperation of the Legislature, and the greatest discretion and wisdom of the Board appointed to manage them.

They may be well attended, the discipline may be excellent, and their teachers well qualified; classes may graduate with honor, and the people may cherish a just pride in the attainments of those who have pursued their course of study; in fact they may be excellent colleges, but if they are not training schools for teachers, and if every thing else be not kept subordinate to the specific object for which they were founded, the result will be disastrous, not only to these schools, but to our whole educational system. The success of Normal Schools in other States-while it has been such as to warrant a hope that the policy we have inaugurated may be successfully carried out-has not been so marked and so uniform as to assure us that we shall not encounter difficulties that prudence, forecast and energy alone will enable us to overcome."

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT PLATTEVILLE.

The State Normal School at Platteville was opened October 9th, 15 It occupies, for the present, the building formerly known as the Platter Academy, which cost about $20,000. Adjoining buildings are now process of erection which will be ready for occupancy in 1868, and wil cost $15,000 or more.

The Faculty of Instruction already appointed includes three gentleme and two ladies. Charles H. Allen is Principal.

ADMISSION OF STUDENTS.

The Board of Regents of Normal Schools has adopted the following regal tions for the admission of students to any State Normal School:

1. Each Assembly district in the State shall be entitled to six representatives in the Normal Schools, and in case vacancies exist in the representation to which any Assembly district is entitled, such vacancies may be filled by the President and Secretary of the Board of Regents.

2. Candidates for admission shall be nominated by the County Superintendent of the county, (or if the County Superintendent has not jurisdiction, then the nomination shall be made by the City Superintendent of the city,) in which suc candidates may reside, and they shall be at least sixteen years of age, of sound bodily health, and good moral character. Each person so nominated, shall receive a certificate setting forth his name, age, health and character, and s duplicate of such certificate shall be immediately sent by mail by the Superintendent to the Secretary of the Board.

3. Upon the presentation of such certificate to the Principal of the State Normal School, the candidate shall be examined under the direction of the Principal of said school, in the branches required by law for a third grade certificate, except History and Theory and Practice of Teaching, and if found qualified to enter the Normal School in respect to learning, he may be admitted, after furnishing such evidence as the said Principal may require, of good health and good moral character, and after subscribing the following declaration : "I do hereby declare that my purpose in entering the State Normal School is to fit myself for the profession of teaching, and that it is my intention to engage in teaching in the schools of this State."

4. No person shall be entitled to a diploma, who has not been a member of the school in which such diploma is granted, at least one year, nor who is less than nineteen years of age; and a certificate of attendance may be granted by the Principal of a Normal School to any person who has been a member of such school for one term, provided, that in his judgment such certificate is deserved.

COURSE OF STUDY.

The instruction is adaped to those who design to teach, and hence is thorough and comprehensive. The discipline is such as to secure self-control, and to promote respect for law and order. Certificates of attendance will be given to those who attend the school for at least one term, and to those who shall attend at least one year and pass an examination, a diploma will be granted. Section 18 of chapter 116 of the general Laws of 1866, provides that “After any per son has graduated at the State Normal School, and has taught a public school in this State one year, the Sperintendent of Public Instruction shall have authority to countersign the diploma of such teacher, after such examination, as to moral character, learning, and ability to teach, as to the said Superintendent may seem proper and reasonable."

Section 14 provides, that "Any person holding a diploma granted by the Board of Regents of Normal Schools, certifying that the person holding the same is a graduate of a State Normal School, and that he is qualified to teach a common school, shall, after the same has been countersigned by the Superin tendent of Public Instruction, as provided in section 13 of this act, be deemed

ualified, and such diploma shall be a certificate of qualification, to teach in any ommon school of this State, and as such shall have the full force and effect of first grade certificate, until annulled by the Superintendent of public Instrucion."

The Board is authorized by section 12 of chapter 116, to provide lectures on Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Astronomy, the Mechanic Arts, Agriculture, nd on any other science or branch of literature that shall be deemed proper, nd it is the design to afford such facilities for acquiring knowledge as will enable those who wish to fit themselves to teach, to save both money and time by vailing themselves of the advantages of a Normal School. All students will be taught how to teach, by being required to do in the experimental school, what hey must afterwards do in the public school.

In professional training, lectures are given daily in some one of the following subjects, viz: proper course of study and training in public schools; methods of instruction and school government; and the students prepare essays and reviews of these lectures.

There is a Model School connected with the Normal School, in which the Normal students practice teaching during the last year of the course.

The Scholastic year is divided into three terms: the first to commence on the first Tuesday of September, and to consist of sixteen weeks; the second to commence on the Tuesday succeeding New Year's day, and to consist of fourteen weeks; and the third to consist of ten weeks and to end on the last day of June.

Students nominated by County or City Superintendents will be admitted at any time during the term.

To all persons, residents of this State, if found qualified to enter a State Normal School, tuition is free. Board may be obtained at reasonable ratesfrom $2.25 to $3.25 per week. A small charge, of from 75 cents to $1.25 per term, is made for the use of text books.

It is expected that, for the present, the Normal Schools of Wisconsin will do most of their work upon the State at large, through under-graduates. Teachers of some experience will come up and stay one, two, or three terms, to attend the lectures on teaching, and to be present at and receive the training of the classes.

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MINNESOTA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,

AT WINONA.

HISTORY.

THE Legislature of Minnesota, in 1858, passed an act directing the Governor to appoint a Normal Board of Instruction, consisting of a Director in each of the six Judicial Districts of the State, to whom was intrusted, under certain restrictions, the establishment of three State Normal Schools. The statute provides that, "There shall be established within five years after the passage of this act, an institution to educate and prepare teachers for teaching in the Common Schools of the State, to be called a State Normal School, and also within ten years, a second Normal School, and within fifteen years, a third, provided that there shall be no obligation to establish either of the three schools, until the sum of five thousand dollars is donated to the State in money and lands, or in money alone, for the erection of necessary buildings and for the support of the professors or teachers in such institutions; but when such sum is donated for such purpose, a like sum of five thousand dollars is appropri ated by the State, for the use and benefit of such institutions."

The Normal Board at its first meeting in the capital, August 16th, 1859, formed the six Judicial Districts of the State into three Normal Districts.

The citizens of Winona, having offered a subscription of seven thousand dollars on condition that one of the schools should be located there, the offer was accepted by the Board and the first State Normal School of Minnesota was established at Winona.

This school was organized in September 1860, and continued in operation until the Spring of 1862, when it was suspended owing to the embarrassments growing out of the war and no appropriations for its support were made for the two years ending with 1863.

At the session of the Legislature for 1864, a permanent annual appropriation was made for its support as follows: $3000 for the year 1864, $4000 for 1865, and $5000 annually thereafter. The school was reorganized and reopened under the direction of the present Principal on the first of November 1864, since which time it has steadily increased in prosperity and influence. It is now exerting a powerful influence upon the cause of public education throughout the State. In the year 1866, an appropriation of $10,000 was made toward the erection of a suitable building. In the winter of 1867, a second appropriation of $50,000 was made for the building. In addition to this sum, the city of Winona has already appropriated and pledged $25,000 for the same object. One of the finest Normal School edifices in this country is now (1867,) in progress

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