USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
The Normal School which the University trustees opened in 1852 was to fit teachers for the common schools of the State. It was connected with the preparatory department, and, besides a course of lectures on teaching and the manage- ment of schools, was little more than a school for the review of the common branches. Intending teachers occasionally took secondary work in the preparatory classes, but the thought was not common that professional qualifications meant something more than better scholastic attainments in the subjects to be taught; and the theory of teaching was little studied. Nevertheless, it afforded, perhaps, the best
383
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
opportunity offered in Indiana at the time for what was known as professional training.
The organization was simple, but included what was called the "professorship of didactics," to which Prof. Daniel Read was elected; and the Model School, whose prin- cipal was Mr. John C. Smith. It was afterward ordered that the principal of the school should be required to show special preparation by attendance "at some of the normal schools of the country." Within less than a year the order was rescinded. Really qualified principals could not be had or retained at the salary which the board felt able to offer.
The course of study as advertised for the years 1855-'56 was as follows, given chiefly by lectures: "Education, its nature and design; physical education; intellectual educa- tion; moral education; æsthetical education; the history of education; an examination of the powers of the mind, es- pecially with reference to receiving and communicating knowledge; school-house architecture, including school furniture and grounds; the organization and classification of schools; graded schools; the proper incentives for the school; rewards and punishments; modes of teaching dif- ferent subjects; the office of teacher; his duties to himself, his school, and the public; duty of the State in reference to educating its citizens; the educational policy of Indiana."
What could be fuller and more suggestive for teachers than this list of topics well considered? The enterprise in- cluded also model and practice schools, and offered a diploma or certificate to such as satisfied the requirements of the Uni- versity. To this end, for each candidate an examination was set, comprising, besides the lectures on didactics, the common branches, linear drawing, book-keeping, algebra, geometry, mensuration and surveying, natural philosophy and chemis- try, physiology, history of the United States and general history, the constitutions of the United States and Indiana, English literature, and vocal music. Prof. Daniel Read, for most of the period of six years, had charge of the course, with D. E. Hunter for a time as principal of the Model
384
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
School. Altogether it suggested a true professional train- ing.
The school was abolished in 1858, but reorganized six years later, under the charge of D. E. Hunter, who was then Superintendent of the Bloomington public schools, and opened to both sexes. It was once more closed after a few terms, only to be reorganized again in 1868, under Prof. Hoss, who was then at the head of the Department of Eng- lish. Prof. Hoss was just fresh from his official term as State Superintendent, and knew well the needs of the State in better teaching.
This need had been widely and repeatedly discussed for fifteen years, and labored for, by the best men of the State, in the Legislature, in the conventions of teachers, through educational and general newspapers, and wherever public attention could be gained. The time seemed ripe for some positive action. No man was more familiar with the con- ditions than Prof. Hoss. No school in the State could more readily undertake the work than the University. Great re- sults were expected from the new department. The work was advertised to include "drills in different methods of teaching the common-school branches, lectures on the prin- ciples of education, and the organization and management of the schools." But the work was greatly disappointing; it was made but an incident in the constitution of the col- lege occuring in the spring term only, and without any well-defined plan. The department was closed in five years (1873).
In September, 1880, by invitation of the Board of Trustees and the President of the University, Dr. W. T. Harris de- livered, in the course of special lectures, a series on the Philosophy and History of Education. It was attended by numbers of the regular students and by a few school men from other parts of the State. These lectures were designed to afford a larger outlook-to students, intending teachers, and school men generally-over the field of education, the means and instruments of culture, and the conditions of
385
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
effective schooling. But the series was brief and formed no part of a systematic professional study by students.
No further attempts were made by the University to in- troduce pedagogy as a subject of study for collegians until in 1886, when a Department of Pedagogics was ordered, and Superintendent Boone, of Frankfort, Indiana, invited to or- ganize it.
The work from the beginning was conceived and directed from the point of view of the University-not the Normal School. Its original constitution provided a course covering two years, since extended to three, and open to the members of the higher college classes. It includes professional work only. A liberal academic training is presupposed; not less than Freshman, and preferably Sophomore standing. The work is entirely elective, being freely open to students of other departments.
The subject-matter of the course is comprised in the three views of education-(1) the theoretical, (2) the historical, (3) the practical. Under the first is given a year's work upon educational psychology and the science of education; un- der the second, a study of the general history of education, our own national systems and the growth of the school sys- tem, and educational sentiment in Indiana; while under the third view is considered the nature of the school as an insti- tution, city school systems, high-school teaching and super- vision, contemporary foreign-school systems, and the nature of teaching.
It employs neither practice schools nor model lessons, and is not designed to present an established or exclusive art of teaching. It is content to have studied in a liberal way the nature and conditions of education as the ground upon which to erect, or (with a different figure) as furnishing the doctrine out of which may be evolved an approved art.
The department is one of eighteen co-ordinate depart- ments in the University, each covering four years, and each leading to the degree of B. A. Every graduate from the de- partment must have had one year of college English, one
386
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
year of mathematics, one year of laboratory science, and two years of some language other than English, and of col- lege grade; the full course in pedagogics; and sufficient work chosen from other but, in general, related departments to make up the minimum of studies required for gradua- tion (thirty-six terms).
Graduate courses are offered upon the same conditions, and with like privileges as in other departments.
The department has, since the organization, had regularly in its classes from one fourth to one third of the entire col- lege enrollment. At least fifty per cent of each senior class have taken more or less of the work. Since the department has had a body of graduate students, twenty-five per cent of the graduates studying in the institution have been special- ists in pedagogics.
As contributing to its study, the department has accumu- lated a very useful working library of pedagogical litera ture.
2. The State Normal School.
But almost twenty years prior to any establishment for really professional work in the training of teachers by the University, steps had been taken for the organization of a normal school in the State, for the preparation of teachers for the common schools. The origin and development of the institution afford materials for an interesting history.
Not only was the need felt for a body of trained teachers, but, for a decade or more, school men had been acquainted with the existence of normal schools elsewhere and knew something of their work. A few of the teachers sent West by ex-Governor Slade and his society had come from such schools just established in New England and New York. Intercourse between the East and West was more frequent, and the fame of the Albany Normal School had reached In- diana. Profs. Calvin E. Stowe and A. D. Bache had but recently returned from Europe, where they had gathered information of the German and other Continental training schools. The report of the former being published by
387
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
the Ohio Legislature, was given a circulation in Indiana also.
In 1847 the convention's address upon education included a plea, re-enforced by well-chosen extracts from Barnard, Horace Mann, and others, in behalf of special institutions for the training of teachers. In 1851 Daniel Read, before the members of the General Assembly, delivered an address, and urged among other things a normal school as the surest means of raising the qualifications of teachers and dignify- ing their service. It was an occasional theme of discussion in the meetings of the Northern Indiana Teachers' Institute from 1849 to 1853. This does not at all mean that the senti- ment in favor of professional schools for teachers was uni- versal or even common, except among the older and more progressive teachers themselves. Superintendent Larrabee in his first official document refers to normal schools in the following words: "Our Indiana law makes no provision for these. Perhaps this is well, for I doubt if such schools, however important and valuable they may be in some States, would comport with our circumstances, or suit our genius, or meet our wants." Prof. Mills even had said in the third annual report of the State Department, 1854, that the State was not prepared for special appropriations for normal schools and teachers' institutes.
Immediately upon the organization of the State Associa- tion, however, the subject was up for the most serious atten- tion. A committee was appointed, and at Superintendent Mills's suggestion (December, 1855), to consider the wisdom of establishing at least two normal schools. This commit- tee consisted of Charles Barnes, Silas T. Bowen, and Lewis Estes. The report, made at the December meeting in 1856, was referred to the Executive Committee, and discussed the year following. The discussion of two days ended in a com- promise, and was renewed the next year. Among the stanch friends of the movement now was Prof. Mills, as also B. C. Hobbs, O. Phelps, A. J. Vawter, Silas T. Bowen, Charles Barnes, and others. Against these were marshaled a body
388
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
of conservatives not so much opposed to such schools as per- suaded that the time was inopportune. Dr. William M. Daily, President of the Indiana University, pronounced nor- mal schools humbugs.
Nevertheless, public sentiment grew more favorable. "For ten years," says D. E. Hunter, "we besieged the Legis- lature; but not until some of our own (the association's) members found seats in that body did it take action on the Normal School bill." The act was introduced, and gained its hearing largely through the influence of Hon. B. E. Rhodes, and passed December 20, 1865, during the called session.
At this time there were twenty-four normal schools, in fifteen States. Five States had more than one each. All were State institutions. The first had been established twenty-five years before in Massachusetts. Indiana had waited long and lost valuable time, but the provisions of the bill when finally approved gave pronounced emphasis to the professional nature of the proposed school. Its object was declared to be "to prepare teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana." It was not meant to be an academy or seminary, but a professional school, wherein training in the theory and practice of organizing, teaching, and managing schools should be held to be the primary pur- pose.
Under a provision of the law requiring a donation of no less than $50,000 cash value to determine its location, the place of the school was fixed at Terre Haute. The city offered $50,000 in money and the school trustees more than two acres of ground additional, valued at $25,000. The Legislature in 1867 by special act diverted to the school also $50,000 of the year's collection of the Township Libra- ry Fund. In 1869 it made an additional appropriation of $70,000. The original act provided further that in each ap- portionment of school funds the State Superintendent should set apart $5,000 for tuition purposes in the Normal School. In 1873 this was made $15,000 per year, or $7,500 at each ap- portionment. Since 1883 it has been $10,000 semi-annually.
389
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
The school was formally opened January 6, 1870, with William A. Jones as president and a faculty of three, ex- clusive of teachers in the Model School. Mr. Nathan New- by, instructor in mathematics, and Miss Amanda P. Fun- nell, in charge of geography and primary methods, were both graduates of the Oswego Training School. The work in English was given in charge of Miss Mary A. Bruce. From twenty-one students at this opening, the enrollment has increased to 1,009 for the year 1890, and an average term enrollment for the last ten years of more than four hun- dred. Of over six thousand students who have in twenty years taken more or less of its work, about one sixth have come from the families of Vigo County or from those that have moved to Terre Haute to have the advantages of the school. Next to Vigo County, Parke has sent most stu- dents. Fourteen counties * have furnished more than forty- six per cent of all, eleven others t having averaged but six to the county for the twenty years. The school has had in this time 450 graduates. Two thirds of these, it is estimated, remain in the Indiana schools, besides a large number of the undergraduates of the institution.
As an organization the school includes, as it has from the beginning, the Normal School proper and the Model School. This latter includes one class in each of the usual eight grades below the high school .; Its pupils constitute a school district in the city of Terre Haute, and have their regular teachers employed under agreement between the Normal School Board and the City School Board. It serves as a practice and model school for the Normal School pupils.
The Normal School proper is designed to " confer that knowledge which constitutes the science of education, and
* Boone, Clay, Hendricks, Marion, Morgan, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Tippecance, Vermilion, Vigo, Wabash, Warrick, and Wayne.
t Adams, Blackford, Brown, Crawford, Lake, Marshall, Ohio, Porter Starke, Steuben, and Whitley.
# This has just recently been modified to include in the Model School only the four primary grades.
26
390
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
to train students in the art of instruction and school man- agement." It exists for professional ends and not for gen- eral culture. Only those who seek to fit themselves for the work of teaching are considered eligible to its privileges, and very properly so.
Very early there was added to the regular elementary course which prepared teachers for the common schools an advanced course, including Latin or German, or an addi- tional amount of each, and more advanced work in mathe- matics. At present there are offered six courses-one of four years; three of three years each, open to high-school graduates; and two covering each one year, open to gradu- ates of college. In general, the regular course includes two terms each of the common-school branches, except reading, writing, and spelling, five terms in advanced mathematics, two in higher literary studies, five in science (two of physics, and one each of botany, chemistry, and geology or zoolo- gy), one term of music and drawing, and six terms of Latin. The more purely professional work comprises one term in educational psychology, one in the philosophy and history of education, and a term each in methods in reading and lan- guage, number and form, and geography and history, besides which students are required to observe and interpret the work of the practice schools during the time they are receiving instruction in methods, and in the last year of the course spend a considerable time in actual teaching in these schools. In the shorter courses a relatively smaller proportion of the work is academic. For college graduates the training is wholly professional.
Graduates of the full Normal School course are admitted to the State University as regular Juniors, and may be graduated in two years, or upon eighteen terms of work.
Upon the completion of either course offered, as required by its conditions, each student receives a certificate of pro- ficiency, for which, after two years' (twelve months') expe- rience in teaching, and upon satisfactory evidence of profes- sional ability to instruct and manage a school, there is sub-
391
THIE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
stituted a diploma, which the law requires "shall be consid- ered sufficient evidence of qualification to teach in any of the schools of this State." This is for life, and carries with it all the privileges of a life certificate from the State Board of Education.
3. The De Pauw University Normal School.
Of a different character was the School of Pedagogy, opened by the trustees of De Pauw University in the fall of 1885. This was a part of the general movement in that in- stitution toward expanding its courses and enlarging its organization incident to the recent very liberal endowment of the institution by Mr. W. C. De Pauw. The university idea dominant was that of a group of related schools, com- prising the liberal arts, fine arts, the three learned profes- sions, and teaching; and the Normal School was needed to round out the system. Besides, it was held by some that a church school should mold the teaching force as well as the preaching force of its people.
The original faculty consisted of Prof. S. S. Parr, dean, Prof. Arnold Tompkins, and Prof. W. H. Mace. Con- nected with the faculty later were Mrs. Tompkins and Mrs. Mace, and Charles W. Greene. After two years, upon the resignation of the dean, the school was reorganized and great- ly enlarged as well as enriched under Prof. Tompkins, the curriculum recast, and the faculty increased.
The design from the beginning was to make the school strictly professional as to the subject-matter, and one of sci- entific method. The course covered three years, and included a critical study of the common-school branches, the subjects reorganized from the teacher's point of view, this covering one year; algebra and geometry; two years of Latin; four terms of general history; physics and chemistry; botany and zoology; and a thorough course in rhetoric and litera- ture; besides a study of the school, its purpose, organization, and management; the mind as a basis of method; general method and the process of teaching; the science and art of
392
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
organizing and superintending schools; the course of study ; the philosophy and history of education, with observation and practice in a training-school. This last was organized in the fall of 1888.
The school closed with the college year, June, 1890. The attendance had constantly increased and the quality of the work greatly improved. Such work as was done during five years is much needed by the State, and it can only be a matter of regret that the public schools must be de- prived of its services. The training was predominantly professional and severely scientific. In its five years it graduated eight students and had under its influence 386 more. Its great prosperity would seem to have justified its continuance.
4. The Richmond Normal School.
The Richmond Normal School was a private enterprise, and was opened September 3, 1883, under the principalship of Prof. Cyrus W. Hodgin.
Its purpose was specifically stated in the first announce- ment to be (1) to prepare teachers, (2) to fit young men and women for college, (3) to furnish the opportunity for a re- view of the common branches, (4) to aid in the formation and promotion of those habits of thinking and acting that constitute a worthy character. As a matter of fact, its work was made chiefly professional. It was a teacher's school, having a three years' course, the professional subjects com- prising psychology, history and theory of education, school management, the school system of Indiana, and methods in reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and United States history. A model school also was maintained and used by students as a practice school.
The school, opening with seventeen pupils, had increased by June, 1885, to a yearly catalogue of two hundred and seventy. The five teachers had been increased to eleven. During the first four years the aggregate membership was more than a thousand. The course was made more profes-
393
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
sional, though, besides the teachers' department, there were post-graduate, academic, and elective courses.
The institution closed with the academic year 1886-'87. Prof. Hodgin connected himself with the Earlham faculty and the school passed into the hands of John C. McPherson, whose failing health compelled him after one year of service to abandon the enterprise. In its high aims, its singleness of purpose, and quality of work, the Richmond Normal held rank among the most efficient teachers' schools of the State.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS (Continued).
5. County Institutes.
THERE seems to have been no legislation recognizing county institutes in Indiana prior to 1865. But, for almost thirty years before that time, voluntary organizations hav- ing the same object had existed in various parts of the State, and were helped on by the leadership and wise counsel of progressive school men. The institute was seen to be one, and a much-needed, means for the elevation of the teach- ing class and the improvement of the schools. It encour- aged professional spirit, conserved learning, knit the teach- ers into a body having common interests, and diffused the instruments and means of culture to the great improvement of education.
Such, in fact, was the convention of Wayne County teachers held in Richmond in 1838, inaugurated and man- aged by Ebenezer Bishop and others, teachers in that city, and attended and addressed by such men as Henry Ward Beecher, E. D. Mansfield, etc. A similar but somewhat more formal session was held in La Grange County, eight years after, by Rufus Patch, then in charge of the La Grange
394
UNDER TIIE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
Collegiate Institute. The intervening years bore a part in the movement. It appears that Wayne and other counties in central and southern Indiana later, also, held occasional meetings that in time took on the institute character and gave technical instruction. The Northern Indiana Teachers' Institute, organized in 1849, with ten-day sessions three or four times a year in the cities about Elkhart, South Bend, and Logansport, prior to 1853; and the itinerating institute in western Indiana, held during the two years of 1858 and 1859, in the vicinity of Greencastle and Crawfordsville, by R. M. Johnson, A. J. Vawter, D. E. Hunter, and L. S. Kil- burn-exhibit the abundant professional and personal inter- est of school men a generation ago in the improvement of teachers.
Besides these, another class of institutes, held under the direction of the State Teachers' Association from 1860 to 1864, inclusive, did valiant service, and deserve particular mention. In the former year that body appointed a com- mittee of eleven, one from each congressional district, and of which Mr. Hoss was made chairman. These were D. E. Hunter, James G. May, E. P. Cole, S. R. Adams, A. C. Shortridge, G. W. Hoss, B. C. Hobbs, A. J. Vawter, Messrs. Wharton and Johnson, and James Baldwin. Each was required to hold at least one institute in each county in his district. In general, this was done, and the policy con- tinued until the institute law was passed in 1865. In the aggregate more than three hundred sessions were held in various parts of the State during these years, and the gen- eral respect for education greatly enhanced.
Prior to 1850 the Teachers' Institute was recognized as a part of the school machinery in a dozen States, receiving more or less of aid from public funds. Michigan, New York, Ohio, and other States both East and West, were already feeling the effects of the new movement. Sweet of New York, Mansfield of Ohio, Salem Town, Horace Mann, David P. Page, Caleb Mills, Breckenridge of Kentucky, W. D. Henkle, Northend, Barnard, Cutter of Massachusetts, and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.