Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/122



112 JOHN C. ALMACK

emies, he said, were unable to give the kind of instruction desirable and necessary for teachers, and the cost of travel was so great it was impossible for them to attend the schools in the western part of the state. He further advocated the creation of normal institute districts identical with the judicial districts. Summer schools were to be held annually therein for from four to six weeks, and the teachers should be com- pelled to attend. "We find," he said, "that there is a large number of teachers who cannot afford to attend normals and colleges." The normal institute has thus from the first been a rival of the normal school, and finally secured recognition in the law permitting county superintendents to conduct sum- mer schools in lieu of county institutes. Clackamas and Josephine have been about the only counties to take advantage of the act.

Legislators pushed the claim of Eastern Oregon for a school, and in 1885 the academy at Weston was made a state normal. This was done by adopting an amendment to the original normal school measure. No other change was made in this law. Control was continued under the same boards, and the right to grant degrees remained. The same session designated a new state normal at Drain, 20 a small village in Douglas County. This had been the Drain Academy, founded by the Methodists. A separate law was passed for this school, but it differed in no essential particulars from the first. Authority was granted to issue a diploma good in any school in the state. This diploma might become a state life certificate after six years' experience. This was in no way a lowering of the standard as state certificates might be easily secured by exam- ination. These were quite numerous in Oregon, as one gov- ernor remarked in his inaugural address : "Thick as the autumn leaves that strow the brook of Vallambrosa." For many years there was no age requirement to gain a county or state certifi- cate : the normals could not graduate males until they were 21 years old ; females must be 18 at least.

20 Enemies of the normals charged that Drain was established in return for a vote given to John H. Mitchell, who was elected United States Senator. This was the basis of the assertion of Jay Bowerman that "the normals were conceived in iniquity."