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show that only about one half of the teachers certificated by them possess vf. cient scholarship to secure a creditable grade of certificate-to say nothing f their lack of professional knowledge, skill and experience. It is scarcely as sary to add that this is the result of a sufficiently low standard of measurement It is true, there are found in our schools many excellent teachers-not a fr who are an honor to their calling and a blessing to the cause of education; be the general fact is lamentably true, that the great body of the teachers of te State possess exceedingly limited qualifications.

Now it is manifest that whatever else we may do, so long as this state of things exists, we shall fail to "secure a thorough and efficient system of com mon schools throughout the State," as is enjoined by our State Constitution. is true that the task of supplying our schools with competent teachers is a cult one, but we must succeed in it, or we shall surely fail to accomplish wiat we have undertaken in the direction of universal education. And let it be remembered, for our encouragement, that just to the extent we do succeed is this task, to that extent shall we also be successful in increasing the efficiency of our school system.

Our experience, thus far, is conclusive that we can not depend upon ordinary school agencies to raise up a supply of qualified teachers for our schools. The general improvement of the schools of the State through the introduction of the principles of classification and gradation, the establishment of high schools, etc, has unquestionably reacted upon teachers, greatly increasing their qualifications and efficiency; but all experience shows that these agencies are entirely inade quate, even in those localities in which they have been carried to their highest perfection.

Nor can we longer fold our arms and depend upon the philosophy of Dog berry to vitalize and improve our school system. Nature has an exceedingly limited supply of self-furnishing and self-guiding teaching ability; or she is very chary of it. It is sadly evident that the great majority of teachers do not come from her hands fully endowed and panoplied for their work, as Minerva is fabled to have sprung from the brain of Jupiter. The truth is, neither natural aptitude, nor experience in teaching, nor good school instruction, nor good examples of teaching, can be depended upon to provide a sufficiency of competent teachers for our schools. The first two of these agencies are fixed quanti ties, so far as our efforts can effect them, and the last two must be increased and widened mainly by a corresponding increase of well qualified teachers, which is not unlike the fruitless endeavor to intensify a cause by first increasing its effects!

I have thus shown the absolute necessity of well-qualified teachers in an efficient system of education; the wide spread and lamentable lack of such teachers in the schools of this State; the inability of ordinary school agencies to supply these schools with competent teachers; and the necessity and practi cability of special professional training as a preparation for the teacher's office. I am carried by the force of an irresistible logic, and by the plain teachings of experience, one step farther. The State of Ohio must provide special agencies for the training of competent teachers for the schools under its control. This is the practical conclusion of the whole matter. The State, in assuming the responsibility of maintaining a system of common schools for the right education of its citizens, has also taken upon itself the consequent duty of providing these schools with capable, efficient teachers—a duty which can not be ignored, and which ought not to be longer neglected. "An adequate knowledge of the theory and practice of teaching" is now made by law an essential qualification of every common school teacher, and it is the imperative duty of the State to provide facilities for acquiring such important knowledge.

In the firm belief that the establishment of an efficient system of professional instruction and training for the teachers of the State is an essential measure for the adequate improvement and elevation of our school system. I take pleasure in commending the following plan of organizing such a system to the favorable consideration of the General Assembly:

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PLAN FOR PROVIDING NORMAL INSTRUCTION IN OHIO.

A system of professional training for the teachers of this State, to be in the highest degree efficient and successful, must place such training within reach of every teacher. It must also provide facilities of a high character for the training of a superior class of teachers, whose example and influence shall vitalize the profession and lift it up to a higher standard. Without entering upon a discussion of these propositions, I will proceed to describe three agencies which, taken together, present such a system. They are: 1. County Teachers' Institutes. 2. District (Judicial) Normal Institutes. 3. State Normal School.

1. County Teachers' Institutes.-A well conducted Teachers' Institute, bearing directly and practically upon the duties of the school-room, is an important instrumentality for the professional instruction of teachers. Its value has been tested by more than twenty years' trial in every State blessed with a free school system.

I think I am safe in saying that no other agency has done more toward increasing the professional attainments of the great body of American teachers than this. In the State of New York, where it first originated, an Institute continuing in session two weeks, is held annually in every county. The example of other States might also be cited.

The amendatory school law of 1864 requires each applicant for a teacher's certificate to pay a fee of fifty cents as a condition of examination, and sets apart most (at least two-thirds) of the funds arising from such fees for the support of Teachers' Institutes in the several counties. In the larger counties this fund is sufficient to hold a good Institute each year, but in the smaller counties it is not adequate to meet all expenses. The new system is not yet in full operation, but it promises much for the future.

The great difficulty now to be overcome is the lack of experienced and competent institute superintendents and instructors. Very few teachers are capable of performing this important service, and those who are capable have, as a gen'eral rule, other duties which require their entire time. In several counties, arrangements for holding Institutes have had to be abandoned because the committee could secure no competent person to take charge of them. Nine pressing invitations for assistance were on my table at the same time, only three of which could possibly be responded to favorably.

What is needed is a corps of experienced Institute instructors, capable of unfolding and illustrating by practical drills and lessons, the best methods of teaching the several branches of study to classes of different and varying capacities, and able to present clearly and systematically the principles which underlie such methods, as well as those which must guide the teacher in the higher duties of moral training and government. Such a corps of instructors going through the State, organizing and conducting Institutes in the more backward counties, and lending a helping hand wherever their assistance may be needed, would make the new Institute system a powerful agency for the better preparation of teachers, and, as a consequence, for the advancement of the school system.

But in order that such a corps of instructors may be put into the field, an appropriation by the State to assist in their support, is absolutely necessary. I would most earnestly repeat the recommendation made last year, that an appropriation sufficiently large to keep at least three competent instructors in the field be made by the General Assembly. The teachers of the State are paying annually over $8,000 for the support of Institutes. Could the State pay at least half this sum, the present Teachers' Institute fund would be made fruitful as a practical means for the better qualification of teachers.

2. District Normal Institutes.-County Teachers' Institutes have, of necessity, too brief sessions to afford such a systematic course of professional training as all our teachers need, and as many of them are willing to receive. Even when they are continued two weeks, there is little time for model-lessons and practical drills to illustrate methods of teaching. In other words, there is little time for professional TRAINING, the brief session of the Institute being required for INSTRUCTION in the methods and principles of the art of teaching.

To meet this growing demand for a more thorough course of instruction and training than the County Institute can furnish, temporary Normal Institutes, continuing in session from four to six weeks, have been organized. So suecessful have been these Normal Institutes, that they have been organized in connection with several of the Normal Schools of the country.* Eight such Institutes were held in the State during the past summer; most of them, however, partook more of tlie character of brief schools for the review of the common branches, than of Institutes for the professional training of teachers. What is needed is a thorough and efficient system of Normal Institutes, largely professional in their character.

The plan I would respectfully recommend is the organization of one such Normal Institute in each of the ten judicial districts of the State, a session to be held annually, at some convenient point. There will be little or no difficulty experienced in securing the use of suitable buildings and other accommodations without expense to the State. These will be gratuitously furnished by Boards of Education and the proprietors of private institutions of learning, for the purpose of securing the advantages of the Institute to their respective localities. The expense of instruction should be borne by the State, and this will require an appropriation of about $400 to each Normal Institute held, making an annual aggregate of about $4000. I know of no way in which so small an expenditure for the elevation and increased efficiency of the school system can be made with certain promise of so large a return. These Normal Institutes, held in different localities, would exert an influence which would soon permeate the entire school system.

3. State Normal School.-To complete the system of professional training recommended, there should be established at least one State Normal School of a high character. No system of Institutes, however complete and thorough, can alone accomplish what is needed. The length of their sessions is, at best, too limited, and the course of training too partial to raise up such a class of model teachers as are needed to lift common school instruction out of the deep ruts of routine, and to impart to it vitality and power. We need teachers trained by superior methods, that they in turn may become the teachers of teachers, and both by example and precept lift up the profession to a higher and truer standard. In short, we need a Normal School that shall be able to go beyond mere scholastic training and model. examples of skillful teaching; that shall unfold thoroughly and systematically the why as well as the how of education-that shall teach its history, its philosophy, its methods.

It is true that one Normal School, however complete and thorough, will not be adequate for the accomplishment of a tithe of what is needed. But we must make a beginning, and, as all experience teaches, one thoroughly equipped Normal School will prove more efficient and valuable, even for the State at large, than two inadequately furnished for their mission, and consequently feeble and superficial in their influence and training. Besides, the complete success of one Normal School will soon prepare the way for the organization of another.

The cost of establishing a first-class Normal School in this State will depend,

The first Normal Institute of this character ever held in this country was convened at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1839, by Henry Barnard, then Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools for that State, at his own expense, "to show the practicability of making some provision for the better qualification of Common School teachers." It was called a "Teachers' or Normal Class," and was so successful that Mr. Barnard, in giving an account of it in the Connecticut Com non School Journal for November, 1839, used the following language:—

"We have no hesitation in saying that a judicious application of one-fifth of the sum appropriated unanimously by the House of Representatives to promote the education of teaches of Common Schools in different sections of the State, would have accomplished more for the usefulness of the coming winter schools, and the ultimate prosperity of the school system, than the expen diture of half the avails of the School Fund in the present way. One thousand, at least, of the eighteen hundred teachers would have enjoyed an opportunity of critically revising the studies which they will be called upon to teach, with a full explanation of all the principles involved, and with reference to the connection which one branch of knowledge bears to another, and abo to the best methods of communicating ench, and the adaptation of different methods to different minds. They would have become familiar with the views and methods of experienced teachers, as they are carried out in the better conducted schools than those with which they had been familiar. They would have entered upon their schools with a rich fund of practical knowledge gathered from observation, conversation and lectures, and with many of their own defective, erroneous, and perhaps mischievous, views corrected and improved."

In the fall of 1839, and the spring of 1840, Mr. Barnard held County Institutes identically the same as those held in New York in 1842.-Ed.

of course, upon the cost of the grounds and buildings. The experience of several other States leads me to hope that these will be given by some community as a bonus to secure the location of the institution. The citizens of McLean county, Illinois, subscribed one hundred and forty-three thousand dollars for the sake of getting the Normal University of that State located in the county. Hon. Josiah Quincy, Boston, purchased a building and presented it to the Normal School at West Newton, Mass., now removed to Framingham. The city of Oswego has purchased and fitted up a fine building for the State Training School of New York. Other similar instances might be named.

The annual expense of maintaining a Normal School of a high character, when once established, will be about $12,000. The current expenses of the Illinois Normal University, Michigan State Normal School, New Jersey State Normal School, and the New York State Normal School at Albany, are respectively about $12,000 a year. This sum will be needed in this State.

It will thus be seen that the actual cost to the State of maintaining the entire system of Normal and Institute instruction which I have recommended, is only about $20,000-a sum altogether insignificant when compared with the grand object it is to promote. The law making the appropriation may with propriety be entitled "An act appropriating $20,000 to keep the half of $3,000,000 from being squandered on incompetent teachers!"

Any attempt to present a complete course of study and training for the proposed Normal School, or to give the details of its organization, would carry me beyond the proper limits of this report. I would recommend that the organization and management of the entire Normal System, including the Normal School, the Normal Institutes, and the County Institutes, be intrusted to a Board of Trustees, or Regents, to consist of the Governor and Commissioner of Common Schools, as ex officio members, and three other persons to be appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the Senate, the same to be known as the "State Board of Normal Regents," with full authority to appoint a general Institute superintendent, to act in conjunction with the Commissioner of Common Schools, and to employ Institute instructors-the amount expended each year being limited to the State appropriation for the purpose. In those counties which may have efficient local Institute associations, the management of the County Institutes should be left, as now, to such associations, the State instructors rendering needed assistance. But I forbear entering further into details. Should the plan recommended receive the approbation of the General Assembly, I shall be happy to render any assistance in my power in determining the practical details of the system.

It is now nearly thirty years since Hon. Samuel Lewis, then State Superintendent of Common Schools, submitted to the General Assembly of Ohio, in answer to a resolution, a "Report on State Institutions for the Training of Teachers and Others," in which he recommended the establishment of a State institution for the professional training of teachers, sustaining his recommendation by a cogency of argument worthy of the great cause he sought to promote. Since the date of Mr. Lewis' report, which presented to Ohio the enviable opportunity of becoming the American pioneer in the professional training of teachers, Normal Schools have been established by sixteen States-Ohio being outstripped by States that have not a tithe of her wealth or population. Even new-born Maryland has made the Normal School an essential element of her new free-school system. Indeed, States that have been peopled since the General Assembly of Ohio passed the resolution referred to, have now their Normal Schools. Massachusetts is paying more than $22,000 annually for the support of her Normal Schools and Institutes. New York pays annually from $20,000 to $25,000* for her Normal Schools, about $17,000 for Teachers' classes in Academies, and from $10,000 to $15,000 for Institutes. Illinois, even while the late civil war was raging, appropriated, in two installments, $97,000 to pay, in part, for the magnificent building now occupied by her Normal University.

Why, in a matter so fundamental and vital as the supplying of her schools with qualified teachers, should Ohio longer fail to be the peer of her sister States? An efficient system of professional training for the teachers of the State is imperatively needed to infuse new life and vigor into the schools and elevate the standard of public instruction. I would most earnestly commend this subject to the favorable consideration of the General Assembly.

* Increased to $60,000 in 1867.

WEST VIRGINIA NORMAL SCHOOLS.

THE Legislature of West Virginia, by an act passed February 27, 1867, established a Board of Regents of the State Normal School of West Virginia, to consist of the Superintendent of Free Schools, ex-officio, the Secretary of State, Auditor, and Treasurer, and one member appointed by the Governor from each of the three congressional districts in the State. The first meeting of the Board was held at Guyandotte, September 6th, 1867, at which time the property formerly known as Marshall College, and valued at $10,000, was transferred to their custody for the use and benefit of a Normal school.

Provision was made for additions and repairs to the buildings and premises, and ten acres of land purchased, making the whole amount for the use of the school eleven and a quarter acres.

The building is four stories high, fifty feet by thirty-six, with a twostory brick wing, fifty feet by thirty, and is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Ohio river, about two miles from the town of Guyandotte. An appropriation of $2,500 was made to procure furniture and apparatus for the school.

An additional appropriation of $35,000 has been made this year, (1868,) and the school is to open June 1st.

The Academy at West Liberty, with about four acres of land, has been purchased by the superintendent for a second Normal school, and the title vested in the Board of Regents.

A preliminary session of this school was opened at Fairmont on the 6th of May, and continued until the 4th of October, or five months. There were about ninety students in all, thirty-three of whom were in the Normal Department; nearly all of these engaged in teaching after the close of the school. Prof. John N. Boyd was Principal, and Prof. A. S. Cameron had charge of the Model Training School.

At a meeting of the Board held October 18th, 1867, the following branches were ordered to be taught in the Normal schools, viz: Orthography, Reading, Penmanship, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, Bookkeeping, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, with practical Surveying, Botany, Natural Philosophy, Anatomy, Physiology, Music, and the Art of Teaching, and such other branches as the Board may from time to time direct.

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