USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 1 > Part 23
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unresting devotion to the public good. To him was due the suc- cess of many of the early measures of the board. He wrote the eighth annual report of the board, in which is the first official recommendation in favor of using the Bible in the common schools. One of his law partners has said of him: "He had fine literary culture and a mind seasoned by familiarity with the standard English classics and the best models of the English tongue. As a writer, he wielded a graceful, vigorous, and prolific pen, showing mastery of 'English undefiled,' evinced by a large number of public addresses and documents and articles for the public press." His elegant yet forceful address at the dedication of the Normal school building at Bridgewater, Sep- tember 3, 1846, was in every way befitting the man and the occa- sion.
The first meeting of the board of education was held the 29th of June, 1837. The most important action of this meeting was the choice of Horace Mann, then president of the state sen- ate, to be the secretary of the board. The intense earnestness of Mr. Mann, which never waned during all the years he held the office, is shown from the fact that in less than three months from the time he entered upon the duties of his office, August 28, 1837, he met in convention the friends of education in every county save Suffolk, examined personally, or through reliable evidence obtained definite knowledge of, the plan and condition of eighteen hundred school houses, and informed himself of the actual needs of the public schools in one-half of the towns of the common- wealth.
We have seen that the liberality of Mr. Dwight, seconded by the action of the legislature, placed at the disposal of the board of education $20,000 to be used for "qualifying teachers for the common schools of Massachusetts." The mode of expending the money was not specified, the responsibility of success or failure was lodged with the board. The debates held are not within our knowledge ; the questions debated are left on record : "Shall the board concentrate its efforts and expend its funds upon a single school? Shall it create pedagogical departments in existing academies ? Shall the normal schools first opened be for women
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alone, or for men alone, or for each in separate schools? Shall the two be trained in the same school ?"
The board decided as an experiment to locate three schools, separate from other institutions, in such places as would accom- modate different sections of the state, and to provide for the education of men and of women in the same school or in separate schools, as the sentiment of the community in which the school was to be located and other conditions should determine. The title Normal was applied in accordance with the usage of Prussia in designating her schools for the special education of teachers. The studies first in order to be pursued in the Normal schools were those then required by law to be taught in the district schools, viz., orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic. "When these are thoroughly mastered," con- tinues the official announcement, "those of a higher order will be progressively taken." The announcement farther affirms : "Any person wishing to remain at the school more than one year, in order to increase his qualifications for teaching a public school, may do so, having first obtained the consent of the principal; and therefore a further course of study is marked out. The whole course, properly arranged, is as follows :
"1. Orthography, Reading, Grammar, Composition and Rhetoric, Logic.
"2. Writing, Drawing.
"3. Arithmetic, mental and written, Algebra, Geometry, Bookkeeping, Navigation, Surveying.
"4. Geography, ancient and modern, with Chronology, Sta- tistics and General History.
"5. Physiology.
"6. Mental Philosophy.
"7. Music.
"8. Constitution and History of Massachusetts and of the United States.
"9. Natural Philosophy and Astronomy.
"10. Natural History.
"11. The principles of Piety and Morality common to all sects of Christians.
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"12. The Science and Art of Teaching with reference to all the above named studies.
"A portion of the Scriptures shall be read daily in every Normal school. A selection from the above course of studies will be made for those who are to remain at the school but one year, according to the particular kind of school it may be their inten- tion to teach."
To each Normal school was to be attached "an experimental or model school," in which pupils of the Normal school could apply their knowledge and be trained to teach.
The board, aware that they were entering a field untried in America hitherto, used their best endeavors to secure the right men for principals.
Samuel P. Newman, professor of rhetoric and political econ- omy in Bowdoin college, Brunswick, Maine, was elected principal of the Barre school. In connection with the official notice of the opening of the school, September 14, 1839, occurs this description of Mr. Newman :
"Mr. Newman is already extensively known to the public as the author of a work upon rhetoric, which is used as a text book in many of the schools, academies and colleges of the United States ; and also of a treatise upon political economy which has passed through many editions. We learn that he has been very popular as professor in Bowdoin college. For several years he officiated as president of that institution, and he is now discharg- ing the duties of that office. Mr. Newman therefore brings to his new station long experience, and a high and well earned reputa- tion. We are happy farther to state that such are his general views of the importance of improved means of education, for the great body of the people, that he regards the office of principal of a Normal school, as neither less dignified in its character, nor less elevated in its objects, than that to which his life has been hith- erto devoted-believing that any station which aims at the wel- fare and improvement of large numbers of mankind, cannot be less honorable or elevated than an office which, though it may give its possessor the power of conferring higher privileges, limits those privileges to a few."
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The third Normal school, that at Bridgewater, was not opened until a year after that at Barre. Nicholas Tillinghast, a graduate of the U. S. Military academy at West Point, was urged by Mr. Mann to become its principal. After serious considera- tion, and with great reluctance, Mr. Tillinghast decided to accept the post. He had held command in the west and southwest for five years, had taught natural sciences and ethics in the academy for six years, and had resigned his place in the army "to enter" as a teacher of a private school in Boston "upon more congenial work." It was a tribute to the esteem in which Mr. Newman was held that Mr. Tillinghast should spend at Barre six months in studying methods and in planning his work previous to the . opening of the Bridgewater school. It would seem that the pre- eminence of the Westfield school, which was often recognized in after years, was evident in its earliest years at Barre.
"Hither, as to their fountain, other stars,
Repairing, in their golden urns, draw light."
The progressive measures pushed by the tireless and invin- cible secretary of the board of education, while animating the zeal of the intelligent friends of popular education, excited the opposition of those who clung to what they termed "good old ways, " and saw no need of changing the old order by introducing "new fangled notions," as the new measures were called. A change in the political affairs of the state gave the opposition an opportunity.
Quite exceptional to the usual election of a whig governor was the election of Marcus Morton, a democrat. Governor Ever- ett retired, having served four years in succession. With unmis- takable zeal he had co-operated with the board of education and their ardent secretary, in establishing the Normal schools and in promoting other progressive measures.
Horace Mann, commenting in the Common School Journal, which at that time he edited, upon the inaugural of Governor Morton, commends it. Its tone was not clearly opposed to the policy of his predecessor, yet it is now easy to see that there was material in it satisfactory to the narrow conservatives of Morton's party. He says: "The system of free schools, which has been
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transmitted from generation to generation, has improved in its progress and is now in a high degree of perfection." This last clause shows a flight of the imagination equalled only by the con- trasted facts collated by Secretary Mann. Again, speaking of the common schools, the governor says: "In the town and dis- trict meetings, those little pure democracies, where our citizens first learn the rudiments and the practical operations of free institutions, may safely and rightly be placed the direction and the government of these invaluable seminaries."
On the third of March, 1840, the committee on education were directed by an order of the house to consider the expediency of abolishing the board of education and the Normal schools and to report by bill or otherwise. The majority of the committee brought in a lengthy report setting forth among other grievances that "if the Board of Education has any power, it is a dangerous power, trenching directly upon the rights and duties of the legis- lature; if it has no power why continue its existence at the ex- pense of the commonwealth ? The establishment of the board of education seems to be the commencement of a system of centralization and monopoly of power in a few hands, contrary in every respect to the true spirit of our democratic institutions ; and which, unless speedily checked, may lead to unlooked-for and dangerous results." The next point of attack was the plan of the board to place a little library in every district. Then oc- curred the views of the committee respecting Normal schools. "It appears to your committee, that every person who has himself undergone a process of instruction must acquire by that very process the art of instructing others. This certainly will be the case with every person of intelligence ; if intelligence be wanting, no system of instruction can supply its place. Considering that our district schools are kept on an average for only three or four months in the year, it is obviously impossible, and, perhaps, it is not desirable, that the business of keeping these schools should become a distinct and separate profession which the establishment of Normal schools seems to anticipate."
After urging much more in a similar strain, the report closed by presenting a bill entitled, "An act to Abolish the board of
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education." This act included provisions for abolishing the Normal schools and for returning to Edmund Dwight the $10,000 he had generously given for qualifying teachers for common schools. For some days the conservatives seemed sure of victory ; but a minority report by John A. Shaw, member of the house from Bridgewater, and Thomas A. Greene, ably supported by documents from George B. Emerson and by other evidence of the excellent work of the Normal schools, seems to have restored the good sense of the legislature. The bill reported by the majority of the committee was defeated by a vote of 182 to 148. Another attempt equally hostile to the board of education and its valiant secretary, was made in 1841; but it was promptly defeated by the vote of the house. Never after did organized opposition show so bold a front, and those who were striving for the improvement of the public schools went forward with a firmer step.
The Normal school at Barre suffered great loss in the death of Principal Newman in 1842. It was not easy to find a suitable successor and the school was suspended. Seventy-five young men and ninety young women had been connected with the school- one hundred and sixty-five in all. The experimental stage hav- ing passed, the board of education began to seek a permanent home for the school more accessible to those living in western Massachusetts than Barre. The offers of several towns were con- sidered. Westfield had the advantage over some others towns desiring the school, in that it was on the Western railroad.
The two men most active and influential, it seems, in bring- ing the school to Westfield, were Rev. Emerson Davis, a member of the board of education when it was first organized, and Hon. William G. Bates, at this time a member of the board. These men pledged money in aid of the school, and secured subscrip- tions from others. The writer recalls a conversation with Mr. Bates, in which he said that at the close of a hot summer day spent in the trial of cases in the court room in Springfield, he learned that those who had the matter in immediate charge were about to locate the school in some other town than Westfield. "Not having time," said he, "to obtain a change of linen, even, I took the cars for Boston and staid there until it was decided that
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the Normal school should be located in Westfield." What finan- cial inducements his devotion to his town led him to make, we know not. We may be sure, however, that the man who was then the acknowledged leader of the Hampden bar, did not fail to cumulate arguments with skill and to enforce them with power. The fact that Dr. Davis was in Westfield and might be prevailed upon to take charge of the school until a suitable principal could be obtained, received due consideration.
The school was reopened September 4, 1844, in one of the rooms of the Westfield academy. After one term it was removed to rooms fitted up for it in the town hall building. Dr. Davis was principal and William Clough first assistant. Twenty-three young men and twenty-six young women were examined for admission. Mr. Clough, a graduate of Yale, and a very thorough teacher, remained but one year. P. K. Clarke, a graduate of the same college, and for a time a tutor in it, succeeded Mr. Clough. Dr. Davis was in the school a part of each day; he taught some classes and gave occasional lectures. His large ac- quaintance with educational affairs, his practical skill and his abounding common sense and good judgment proved of great value to the school during this somewhat trying period in its his- tory. During all the subsequent years of his life, the school had no stronger or more helpful friend than Dr. Davis.
In the meantime, while the school was occupying rooms in the town hall, measures were taken to secure a suitable building.
During the year 1845 a number of public spirited gentlemen in Boston agreed to raise $5,000 for the erection of two Normal school buildings-one at Westfield and one at Bridgewater-on condition that the legislature would appropriate an equal sum for the purpose. The legislature appropriated the additional $5,000. The $5,000 to be used in Westfield was increased by con- tributions from some of the citizens of Westfield, James Fowler, Esq., giving the lot, so that an excellent brick building was erect- ed, while the building at Bridgewater was of wood. On the 19th of August, 1846, the Bridgewater building was dedicated, Mr. Bates giving the dedicatory address. On the 3rd day of Septem- ber following, President Humphrey of Amherst college gave the
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dedicatory address at the opening of the building in Westfield. In this address he showed the need of better qualified teachers, the reasons for their professional education, what this includes, and the adaptation of the normal school to accomplish it. The closing paragraph, which we quote below, is a just tribute to those whose money and whose personal efforts had brought the school to Westfield and secured for it a beautiful building of the simple Ionic order, satisfying alike to the eye of the cultured artist and the untaught critic, because of its graceful and accurate propor- tions.
"Citizens of Westfield, we congratulate you upon your edu- cational enterprise and privileges. Few towns in the common- wealth have acted upon a wiser forecast. Besides your primary schools, with doors wide open to every child, however poor, you have one of the oldest and most flourishing academies in the state -not waxing and waning, as many do, but always flourishing under able teachers and a supervision which forbids its decline. With these high advantages you might have rested satisfied. But when the western Normal school was to be permanently located, you entered into an honorable competition for the additional facilities which it would bring to your doors. Favored by your natural advantages, and entitling yourselves by liberal subscrip- tions to the preference, you succeeded. The school which had been for some time suspended was brought here, and re-opened with temporary accommodations, and now this beautiful edifice is to receive it. Much will depend upon your co-operation with the board and with the teachers for its prosperity. Upon your aid in accommodating the scholars from abroad upon reasonable terms, and guarding them against those moral dangers which so easily beset the young, we confidently rely. You will not disap- point this expectation. You will cherish this seminary as you do your schools and academy. To the cause of good learning we dedicate it. To the care and benediction of heaven we commend it. May it more than answer the sanguine hopes of its projectors, in furnishing teachers of a high order for many generations."
The building was sixty-two by forty feet, two stories high, presenting an entrance at each end under high piazza roofs sup-
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ported by Ionic columns. The Normal school was to occupy the second story, the teachers, and pupils' desks being in the central room about forty feet square. At each end of this room a door opened into a recitation room. The first story was similar in its arrangement of rooms and was to be occupied by the school of the central district as an "experimental or model school." In con- sideration of the town occupying these rooms with one of its schools, Westfield had appropriated $1,500 to the building fund.
David S. Rowe was appointed principal, a graduate of Bow- doin college and a teacher of considerable experience. The whole
First Normal School Building
Dedicated September, 3, 1846
number of applicants was 55. Of these, 47-20 young men and 27 young women,-were admitted.
The Normal school thus fairly started on its successful career had much to do. Its teachers and its students had all the enthu- siasm of those who are setting out on a voyage of discovery or entering untrodden ways on an exploring expedition. The writ- ings of Pestalozzi and his followers were studied. Descriptions of German schools were carefully read as they had been vividly outlined by Horace Mann and by others who had visited these
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schools. Ideals were formed, changed, improved. That the teacher should teach, and not the text-book, was affirmed, but the method of teaching the several studies required in the common schools was to be wrought out. While in acquiring knowledge, the traditional text book method was continued in the Normal school, something sharply condemnatory of that method was for- mulated by teachers and pupils as they prepared and presented real teaching exercises in elementary arithmetic, geography, natural science and language. The inventive genius of teachers and pupils was taxed to the utmost. If some of the devices wrought out and noted for future use were afterward found in the district school to be more original and curious than suitable, they excited interest and were sustained by the enthusiasm of the teacher.
The members of the board were on the alert to lend to the Normal schools the lustre of the reputation of illustrious men and to enrich the course of study with their thoughts upon educational and scientific themes. Guyot, the peerless geographer, author of "The Earth and Man," gave new, comprehensive, and profound views of the earth; Russell showed the power of literature when expressed in appropriate utterance. The Bible read by him took on new and impressive meaning. Agassiz, with inexpressible charm, led the students to discover wonders in the structure of some tiny insect or in a panorama of language and illustration presented his clear vision of the massive changes wrought during the glacial age. These men, and such as these, gave dignity to the Normal school and helped it forward.
The "Bates Homestead" was the hostel of these distin- guished lecturers during their occasional visits, and often Mrs. William G. Bates by evening receptions acquainted the towns- people with eminent men whose names only had hitherto, to most of them, been known.
The people of Westfield cared for the students of the Normal school with the same courtesy and kindness that for nearly half a century had distinguished their care of the students of Westfield academy. They took them into their families and for less than two dollars per week provided the comforts of a pleasant home.
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For those young ladies who were compelled to live at still cheaper rates or forego a course at the school, simply furnished rooms were provided in which they boarded themselves. The kindly at- tentions of the townspeople to the students were so appreciated that it was no uncommon thing for them to come a long way to Westfield, while one of the other Normal schools was near their home. For many years the Normal school in Westfield, in num- bers, outranked all others in the state.
I may not pass without mention the genuine interest in the highest welfare of the students shown by the members of the sev- eral churches. Mrs. Davis, wife of Dr. Davis, held weekly meet- ings for them and other young ladies ; but she did not rely upon collective efforts ; she became acquainted with each and led many by her words and prayers to begin a christian life. Very many students, during all their subsequent lives, cherished her memory with the tenderest regard.
The period of Mr. Rowe's administration ended in March, 1854, when he resigned to become principal of the Irving insti- tute, Tarrytown, N. Y. This was a tentative period. The course of the Normal school in these years, and in many following years, was not a way strewn with flowers. The friends of progressive measures had triumphed in the legislature and Horace Mann wrought a revolution in public sentiment, so far as it was possible for one man to do this; but conservative opposition, though silenced, was ready to assert itself whenever opportunity favored. There were not wanting teachers who felt that the establishment of Normal schools was indeed a recognition of the importance of teaching, but who also felt that the Normal school was criticising and at times condemning certain modes of procedure in the public schools. Such teachers were keen to detect defects in the work of the Normal school or in the work of those there trained. The opportunities to expose such defects were not wanting. Then there was yet much scepticism respecting the need of any such professional training as was proposed. It was said, "Every one can teach whatever he knows." It was affirmed that one's own school room was the only place, and actual experience the only means for gaining wisdom and skill in the management and
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teaching of children. The value of the normal school was to be proved by the excellent teaching of those who had been members of the school. This required time. School districts had become accustomed to look to the academies to supply their best teachers, and from the first, academies had assumed the function of fitting teachers for the public schools. The academies had social pres- tige. The Normal school had its prestige to gain. In these early years of normal schools there was no surplus of applicants, so there was little opportunity to select promising candidates or to pledge any to a full course of training.
Mr. William H. Wells, who succeeded Mr. Rowe as principal in 1854, and resigned in 1856, to become superintendent of the schools of Chicago, was the first to attempt to form a graduating class in the Westfield school, and to secure official diplomas for those who completed an authorized course of study.
Those who gathered in the Normal school were in those early days quite diverse, in age, in ability and in acquisitions. Stu- dents in the academy had the charm of early youth, those who had the age and the manner of schoolma'ams and schoolmasters, were not infrequent in the Normal school. In the more fashion- able circles, a "normal" was sometimes a term denoting a sort of nondescript, or suggesting one of the queer and funny folk im- mortalized by Goldsmith in his "Deserted Village," and by Irv- ing in his "Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
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