Page:A history of the Michigan state normal school (now Normal college) at Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1849-1899 (IA historyofmichiga00putniala).pdf/55

 “Nearly thirty years’ experience in the business of teaching, I thought, had given me some acquaintance with its true principles and processes, and I deemed it no presumption to believe that I could teach them to others. This I attempted to do in the normal school at Lexington; (1) didactically, that is, by precept, in the form of familiar conversations and lectures; (2) by giving every day and continually, in my own manner of teaching, an exemplification of my theory; (3) by requiring my pupils to teach each other, in my presence, the things which I had taught them; and (4) by means of the model school where, under my general supervision, the normal pupils had an opportunity both to prove and improve their skill in teaching and managing schools. At all our recitatious, (the modes of which were very various,) and in other connections, there was allowed the greatest freedom of inquiry and remark, and principles, modes, processes, everything indeed relating to school-keeping, was discussed. The thoughts and opinions of each one were thus made the property of the whole, and there was infused into all hearts a deeper and deeper interest in the teachers’ calling. In this way the normal school became a kind of standing teachers’ institute.’*

This method of conducting the school was natural and wise enough at the beginning, when the number of students was very limited, and most, or all of them, were teachers of some experience, but it soon gave way to a more formal and regular plan.

A consecutive course of instruction was soon arranged which included all the ordinary common school branches, most of the studies of the academy o1 high school of that time, and in addition mental philosophy, vocal music, the constitution of Massachusetts and of the United States, the principles of piety and of morality common to all sects of Christians, and the science and art of teaching with reference to all the studies named.

In theory at least, an experimental or model school was attached to each normal school. In the teaching of this school the students of the normal assisted under the supervision of the Principal. They also observed the instruction given by the regular teachers of the model school, and afterwards, with the Principal and teachers, met for free discussion of the merits and defects of the work which had been observed.

The law establishing the first normal school in Connecticut, enacted in 1849, provided that the object of the school should be, ‘‘not to educate teachers in the studies now required by law, but to receive such as are found competent in these studies, * *