USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > Education in Indiana. An outline of the growth of the common school system, together with statements relating to the condition of secondary and higher education in the state and a brief history of the educational exhibit. Prepared for the Louisiana purchase exposition, held at Saint Louis, May 1 to November 30, 1904 > Part 35
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The act of 1890 appropriates $25,000 annually for mainte- Dance with the provision that it :
"Be applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts. the English language, and the various branches of mathematical. physical, natural and economic science, with special reference to their application in the industries of life and to the facilities for such instruction."
In accordance with this law the university offers the following courses of instruction :
1. Agriculture. (a) Science and practice of agriculture. (b) horticul- mure, (e) entomology, ( agricultural chemistry, (e) veterinary science. if't dairying. () animal husbandry.
2. Applied Science .- (a) Biology, (d) chemistry, (c) physics, (d) indus- trial art, ter sanitary science.
3. Mechanical Engineering .- (a) Shop practice, (In) machine design. (e) transmission of power, ab hydraulic engineering. (e) steam engineering.
4. Civil Engineering .- (a) Shop practice. ())) railway engineering. (e) bridge engineering, () hydraulic engineering, (e) sanitary engineering.
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5. Electrical Engineering .- (a) Shop practice. (b) machine design, (c) electrical engineering, (d) dynamo construction, (e) installation and man- agement of electric railway and lighting plants, (f) telephonic engineering. 6. Pharmacy .- (a) Pharmacy, (b) chemistry, (c) materia medica, (d) prescription practice, (e) botany.
In addition to these departments of instruction the agricultural experiment station is occupied solely with investigations pertain- ing to agricultural problems.
Instruction was begun at Purdue in 1874. The first class graduated in 1875, since which time the instructional work of the institution has been continuous.
One thousand eight hundred students have been graduated from the institution, and over six thousand have received instruction for a longer or shorter period.
The faculty numbers one hundred. The courses of study are continuous throughout the year, hence the annual enrollment is practically complete by the close of the first semester. At that time, February 1, 1904, the enrollment was 1,424.
The institution is supported by the interest on its endowment fund ($340,000) ; by the proceeds of the state educational tax of 1-20 of a mill on each one hundred dollars of taxable prop- erty, and by an appropriation from the United States of $25,000 per annum, known as the Morrill fund.
The Indiana experiment station, which is an organic part of the university, receives its support from the United States, and the farmers' institutes are supported by funds received from the state, of which the university acts as trustee.
Equipment .- The grounds of Purdue comprise one hundred and eiglity acres, fifty acres of which constitute the university cam- pus, the remaining one hundred and thirty serving as a farm- laboratory for the school of agriculture and experiment station.
Twenty-two large buildings accommodate the various depart- ments. University hall is occupied by the library and reading room, the halls of literary societies, and the offices of the registrar and the secretary of the board of trustees. The engineering build- ing, presenting a floor space of more than an acre, contains the offices, lecture rooms, drawing rooms, shops and extensive labora- tories of the departments of mechanical and civil engineering. The electrical building, chiefly characterized by its large dynamo
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laboratory, is devoted to the departments of electrical engineering and physics. Science hall is the home of the departments of biology and chemistry. Agricultural hall, the experiment sta- tion, the veterinary infirmary and a group of extensive farm build- ings give accommodation to various phases of the work of the school of agriculture. Purdue hall is occupied entirely by reci- tation and lecture rooms, the pharmacy building by the depart- ment of pharmacy, and the art hall by the lecture room and studies of the art department. The latter building also serves as a dormitory for women students. The Eliza Fowler hall is a beautiful building containing the auditorium used for public and official functions of the university, and also the offices of the president of the university.
In the organization and development of the various departments at Purdue, there have been supplied liberal facilities for the accom- modation of students in experimental study and research. It is not too much to say that a marked characteristic of the university is to be found in the number and extent of its laboratories. The equipment which fills these laboratories is in all cases of a very practical sort. In them, the student of engineering finds machines identical in size and character with those which in power-stations and factories are doing the world's work ; the student of science commands instruments and apparatus not inferior to those with which professional scientists employ their time ; while the student of agriculture deals directly with the machines, the materials and the animals of the farm.
In the departments of engineering, the work shops for begin- ning students are elaborately equipped with tools and machines for carpentry and joinery, pattern making, foundry work, forging and machine work, and are sufficiently extensive to accommodate one hundred and sixty men at a time. The steam engine lab- oratory for more advanced students contains fifty or more typical engines, the largest of which is rated at 300-horse power. There are Corliss engines and plain slide valve engines, pumping en- gines and mill engines, and of whatever character, they are in all cases mounted in such a way as to permit their action to be studied and their performance to be tested.
A separate building contains a locomotive testing plant embrac-
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ing a modern locomotive so mounted that it may be fired and its motion controlled precisely as if it were upon the road.
The electrical laboratories contain more than thirty dynamos and motors which are served by switchboards having more than four hundred terminals. Nine other switchboards serve in con- nection with a large array of accessory apparatus. The photo- metric laboratory, the telephone laboratory, the storage batteries and the instrument cabinets each have their appropriate equip- ment.
Similarly, for field work in surveying, for hydrographic work, and for astronomical work in connection therewith, the equipment of the civil engineering cabinets contains types of all instruments usually employed in such work, the list including no less than sixteen engineer's transits and thirteen levels.
The laboratory for testing materials contains a large variety of testing machines for making tests of materials of construction in tension, compression, torsion, and abrasion under both static and impact conditions. Facilities exist for testing cement and concretes. A full supply of cabinet apparatus for delicate meas- urements is provided.
In the department of hydraulics, also, there are steam and power pumps, water-wheels and motors, standpipes and weir tanks, together with accessory apparatus for expert testing.
The engineering laboratory is the repository of the American master car-builders' association, and as such contains the air- brake testing rack, embracing the complete air equipment for two railway trains of fifty cars each, and a brake shoe testing machine designed to determine the coefficient of friction between brake shoes of various materials, and a standard car wheel, these being the property of the association. A locomotive museum contains four historic locomotives.
The science laboratories include a suite of rooms occupied by the department of biology. There are rooms for general biology, physiological and cryptogamic botany, bacteriology, sanitary sci- ence, fermentation, vegetable physiology and plant pathology. The equipment of these laboratories includes microscopes, microtomes, dissecting instruments, illustrative apparatus, herbarinm and col- lections, its extent being suggested by the fact that there are as
33-EDUCATION.
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many as twenty Beek, and fifty Bausch and Lomb's microscopes. Similarly, the department of chemistry has, in addition to its general laboratory which is equipped to accommodate one hundred and seventy-six students at a time, a laboratory for quantitative analysis, special laboratories for advanced study, a departmental library, balance rooms, furnace rooms, store-rooms, etc., while the pharmaceutical laboratories include a prescription room which is equipped as a modern dispensing pharmacy, and a pharma- cognosy room, the cabinet of which includes 1,100 specimens of crude drugs and chemicals.
The equipment of the department of agriculture includes a laboratory of agricultural physics for work in mechanical analysis of soils, a laboratory of agricultural chemistry, a horticultural laboratory supplied with modern appliances for the study of various operations in plant reproduction, and for the investiga- tion of problems in economic botany. A dairy laboratory occu- pying a series of twelve rooms is equipped as a modern creamery for butter and cheese making, while a room devoted to farm- dairying involves more simple apparatus.
A veterinary laboratory and museum and an entomological lab- oratory contain cabinets and equipment usual in such cases. The farm machinery contains an exhibit of modern agricultural ma- chinery, and an agricultural museum contains a collection of specimens of soils, fertilizers, wools, cereals, etc.
The agricultural experiment station, while devoted chiefly to problems of agricultural research, opens its well-equipped labora- tories to advanced students in chemistry, botany and veterinary science.
The college farm with its one hundred and thirty acres is di- vided into fields upon which staple Indiana crops are systemati- cally raised, the rotation and the fertilization being after a plan covering a considerable number of years. The live stock farm is designed to serve in class room work for judging types and breeds, and for experimentation. While most of the animals are bred on the farm, the university from time to time makes pur- chase of stock from some of the best flocks and herds of Europe and America.
The orchard of the farm contains fifty varieties of Russian and standard apple trees, and numerous varieties of pears, plums,
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cherries and other fruit trees, as well as grapes, bush fruits and strawberries.
c. THE INDIANA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL-TERRE HAUTE.
The aet of the general assembly which created the state normal school was approved December 20, 1865. This act defined the object of the school to be "the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana," provided for the appointment of a board of trustees, the location of the buildings, the organi- zation of a training school and the adoption of courses of study, and created the normal school fund for the maintenance of the institution. The act further required the trustees to locate the school at the town or city of the state that should obligate itself to give the largest amount in cash or buildings and grounds to secure the school. The city of Terre Haute was the only place to offer any inducements to secure the institution. A tract of land three hundred feet square near the center of the city, valued at $25,000, and $50,000 in cash were offered, and the city agreed to maintain forever one-half the necessary expense of keeping the building and grounds in repair. This liberal offer was ac- cepted, and the construction of the building was begun. Aided by subsequent appropriations, the trustees were able to complete certain portions of the building, and the school was opened Janu- ary, 1870. The professional training of teachers was an experi- ment in Indiana, and the institution began its work without the confidence and united support of the people of the state.
Twenty-three students were present on the opening day, and this number increased to forty by the end of the term. The attendance has grown steadily since the opening of the school, and during the year ending October 31, 1903, 1,791 different students were enrolled. In 1887 the school had become so large that it was necessary for the high school of Terre Haute, which had occupied a portion of the building since its completion, to find new quarters, thus leaving the entire building of three stories to be occupied by the normal school alone.
On the forenoon of April 9, 1888, the building and its contents were almost totally destroyed by fire. Only the foundations were left unimpaired ; the library, furniture, apparatus and everything
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in the building-the accumulation of eighteen years-were con- sumed. Terre Haute provided temporary quarters for the school, and, under the contract to maintain one-half the expense of repairs to the buildings and grounds, promptly gave $50,000 in cash with which to begin the work of rebuilding. The next general assembly appropriated $100,000 for the completion of the building and the purchase of a new library, etc. With these sums the school con- structed a commodious and beautiful building and purchased an equipment for every department much superior to that possessed before the fire.
The legislature of 1893 appropriated $40,000 for the construc- tion of a new building to be used for gymnasia, library and labor- atories. The general assembly of 1895 appropriated $20,000 and the general assembly of two years later $10,000 with which to com- plete this building.
Material Equipment .- The state normal school occupies two large, handsome buildings, each four stories high. The larger building, constructed immediately after the fire of 1888, is about 190x150 feet, and is a very commodious, well-appointed school building. It contains an assembly room capable of seating three hundred persons, a beautiful chapel which seats comfortably one thousand persons, the president's office, reception room, cloak room, class rooms, wash rooms, etc. It is, architecturally, one of the most beautiful buildings in the state, and its internal arrangement is well adapted to the purpose for which it was constructed.
The second building is about 100x100 feet, and is, architec- turally, in general harmony with the larger building. The base- ment story contains the two gymnasia ; the second story is occupied by the library. This is a large, well-lighted, beautiful room, ad- mirably adapted to library use. The third story is occupied by the several science departments. The fourth story is used by the literary societies and the Y. M. and Y. W. C. associations. The library is equipped with every needed appliance, and contains about 35,000 well-selected volumes. The chemical, biological and physical laboratories on the third floor are substantially finished and are equipped with everything needed for the science work of the school.
Probably there are few, if any, normal schools in the United
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States that are more fully equipped in all their departments for work than is this institution.
Proposed Enlargement .- The general assembly of 1903 made a very liberal provision for an increased support of the school. A specific appropriation of $50,000 was made for the construction of a training school building, and a very substantial advance in the institution's annual maintenance was given by increasing the tax for the support of the school.
For many years the school has felt greatly hampered by the presence in its main building of the large training schools which it is necessary to maintain. These schools have occupied portions of the building very much needed for the other work of the school. In addition to this fact, it has been impossible to provide room enough for maintaining the training school commensurate with the important work that it is intended to do in the preparation of teachers. A suitable site has been purchased near the present buildings and it is the intention to erect thereon a modern building complete in all its details, to be used as a training school building. Every effort will be made to construct a model building that shall afford every facility for the work of the training school. The training school itself will then be enlarged so that each of the eight grades below the high school will have a large, well-ventilated room complete in all of its appointments. Heretofore it has been necessary to have more than one grade in each of several of these rooms. With the new building contemplated, each grade will be to itself in a separate room and managed by a single teacher. A portion of the new training school building will be set apart for elementary manual training work. The $50,000 appropriated by the general assembly will be supplemented by about $25,000 taken from the general funds of the institution, in order that the train- ing school building may be in every respect a modern, model and complete school building.
The increase in the tax for the support of the school will give the institution, beginning July 1, 1904, about $100,000 annually for its maintenance. This will enable the school to enlarge many of its courses and provide additional teachers. It is the intention to offer courses in the various advanced subjects that will equip teachers in every way for teaching the most advanced high school subjects.
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The Purpose of the School .- The statute of 1865 which created the Indiana state normal school clearly defined its object. This was declared to be "the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana." The state normal school, then, is not an institution for general culture for its own sake; it is a special school-a professional school. Its sole purpose is to confer on its students that education, discipline, professional training and practical skill which will best fit them for teaching in the pub- lic schools of Indiana. The school limits its attention and work to this one thing-the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana. No person is admitted who does not enter for the purpose of preparing to teach in the common schools of the state, and all the work of the school has this one end in view. Perhaps a brief statement of the school's work in its attempt to fulfill this one object of its existence may aid some to determine whether or not they wish to become students.
Since the common schools of the state consist largely of the district and grade schools and the greater part of the common school work is in the elementary or common branches, the state normal school seeks first of all to ground its students (such as do not already possess this knowledge) thoroughly in the common or legal branches of study. These lie at the foundation of all learning and scholarship. They are indeed the "fundamental branches of learning." It is also true that the great majority of pupils in the public schools do not advance beyond these elemen- tary subjects. If the state's system of common schools is to become what its founders designed it to be, it must be largely through the efficient teaching of these elementary branches. About one year of the normal school course is devoted to a thorough, reflective study of these. They are not pursued and taught as in a common ele- mentary school. The student is required to possess the usual general knowledge of these subjects to be admitted. In the normal school he is led to make a more critical and philosophical investi- gation of the facts and subject-matter than he has hitherto done. Hle now studies these subjects from a professional point of view, from a teacher's standpoint. His own method of studying them, and the method of presenting them appropriate to the different grades of the public schools, are themselves objects of attention and study. The whole presentation of the subject is surrounded by a
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pedagogical atmosphere which is altogether absent from the ordi- nary school. The student is not only acquiring a larger and better knowledge of the subjects themselves, but he is learning to teach them. All persons are required to pursue the common school branches before graduating except college graduates and persons holding three years', sixty months', professional or life state licenses.
In the next place, the course in the normal school requires every student to pursue a long line of more strictly professional work- that is, work which is designed to give special insight into all edu- cational questions and prepare the individual for intelligent and reasonable charge of a school. This line of study consists of edu- cational psychology, experimental psychology, theory of the school, the principles of methods, observation in the training schools and the interpretation of the teaching observed, child-study, history of education, school supervision, school systems of Europe and Amer- ica, science of education, and practice in the training schools. In this more strictly professional department of the student's work every phase of education receives extended and systematic treat- ment-the historical, the theoretical and practical. The whole ob- ject of this is to lead the student to acquire a knowledge of the principles of education and to acquire a reasonable degree of skill in applying these as a teacher. He is to be freed from obedience to mere prescription and rule as a teacher and acquire genuine orig- inality and true individuality. Rational understanding of his vocation is aimed at and the power to determine from the stand- point of principle what the process and work of the school should be.
In the third place, the school requires its students to pursue such advanced lines and courses of study as will best reinforce the knowledge of the common school branches, and at the same time best prepare them for the more advanced grades of public school work. Courses in Latin, German, history, mathematics, literature, science, etc., are offered, and no student can graduate who does not, in addition to his study of the common school branches and the professional line, pursue a sufficient number of these to com- plete four years' work in the school. Like the common school sub- jects, these branches are studied constantly from the teacher's point of view, and the student is frequently led to reflect upon their
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value as means of education, the method by which they are being studied, methods of teaching these appropriate to the grades in which they are studied, etc. The object is to make the entire work of the schoolstrongly and distinctively professional.
The faenlty now numbers thirty-five. In the spring term, when the attendance is largely increased, the faculty is enlarged by the employment of about ten additional teachers.
B. DENOMINATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
1. STATEMENT.
The establishment of denominational schools in Indiana reveals the same spirit which prompted the Pilgrim fathers to advance learning. Their chief purpose was to advance learning in order to propagate the gospel. They dreaded "to leave an illiterate min- istry to the churches after our present ministry shall be in the (hust." With just such zeal and earnestness did the early pro- moters of onr denominational institutions accomplish their pur- pose. They believed with Francis Lieber, not only that "christi- anity considered as a branch of knowledge constituted an indis- pensable element in a liberal education," but that christianity taken solely as a historical fact is incomparably the mightiest fact in the annals of human society ; that it has tinctured and pene- trated all systems of knowledge, all institutions, both civil and exclusively social, the laws, languages, and literature of the civil- ized nations, their ethics, rights, tastes, and wants. This influence and this religion they conceived the chief end of education to maintain.
The proof of such influence in the habits, minds, wants and lives of the early citizens in Indiana is seen in the struggle they endured to secure and perpetuate the denominational christian col- leges.
4. DEPAUW UNIVERSITY-AN HISTORICAL SKETCH. BY BELLE A. MANSFIELD, A.M., LL.D.
The development of institutions in a state like our own, where they have been a part of the indigenous growth, is always of peenliar interest. Even in the pioneer days in Indiana there was
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a distinct recognition of needs beyond those for the mere material existence, and the life was known to be more than meat, and the body than raiment. Consequently the most far-seeing men and wom- en, with distinct appreciation and rare devotion, bent the best ener- gies of their lives to bring about the most helpful surroundings, for growth and development, not only within their own homes, but also in their several communities and within the reach of the still wider public. Under this impulse, churches and schools naturally found their places among the homes, the mills, the shops, and the stores of the new communities, and the growing civilization. This soon meant schools for the higher education, as well as those of primary and secondary grade; schools, too, not only under state manage- ment and support-but those under religious control as well- where distinct attention should be given to the spiritual growth, at the same time that the intellect was receiving its strictest training and most careful direction. As an outgrowth of this idea, the Methodist ministers of Indiana, in their annual conference as- sembled in 1835, voiced the sentiment of the most progressive, not only of their own numbers, but also of their congregations, when, after long and careful consultation, they drew into a formal resolu- tion this sentiment that had been growing for several years, and adopted it and spread it upon their records-that they would found an institution for higher learning, to be known as "The In- diana Asbury university." This meant much. The state was, as vet, sparsely settled ; its roads, where laid out at all, were well nigh impassable : Methodism had only about 25,000 members within the state confines-and money was scarce among them, as it was also among their neighbors; but the need seemed great, energy was at high tide, and faith in the future unbounded. These ministers went from their conference session, and talked over their new plans with the people of their widely extended circuits.
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