Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/71

 NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 55

graduates, or attendants upon high schools and academies have for the past two years made up a large proportion of the classes. The statistics for the year ending, 1881, are as follows : — •

Whole number of pupils during the year, 50

Number who have taught. 32

Average number of terms taught by them, 4.47

Graduates of high schools or academies, 18

Attendants upon high school or academies one year or more, 44

Number who have attended district schools only, 8

Average age, 20 years, 10 mos.

The school is now provided with ample buildings, well furnished ; steam has just been put into both buildings, and running water with all the conveniences incident to it. Three thousand feet of new black-boards have been built into the walls. A cabinet is to be fitted up for the very complete mineralogical collection belonging to the school. All this has been accomplished with such re- duction of expense to the pupils, that one hundred and thirty-six dollars covers every charge for a school year of two terms of twenty weeks, each. This amount includes even the use of text-books, as well as excellent board, washing, fuel, lights, and rent of furnished room, making it the least expensive Normal School in New England. Three of the teachers have been connected with the school since the last change in administration, the fourth, a graduate of Harvard College, has just been added.

Three steps are recognized in training a person to teach : first, the knowl- edge of the subject matter ; second, the logical development of that matter ; and third, the theory of teaching, together with practice in the training school. Those pupils who have a fair knowledge of the subject matter give the most of their time to the second and third steps; those who are poorly fitted must needs take all. With the present low standard of qualification for teaching, the trustees do not consider that they have the right to reject any applicant showing power, but the pupil must expect to advance slowly.

The Normal School, had it been established fifty years ago, would have met a great need, the training of teachers for the district schools ; to-day it is called upon to meet, in addition, a pressing necessity, — the training of teach- ers for the graded schools of our State. Twenty-eight per cent, of New Hamp- shire live in six towns ; forty-six per cent, in twenty-six towns. Other facts, shown by the last census, were these : no distinctively agricultural town held its population during the last decade, while our cities and villages uni- formly showed a gain in population ; a majority of our children attend schools more or less perfectly graded. The report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1880, shows that we had two hundred and ninety-seven schools with an average attendance of six scholars or less, seven hundred and eighty- five with an attendance of twelve or less, and that the number of these little school districts increased last year one hundred and thirty -nine. Two fifths of the schools of our State average less than nine scholars. What follows from the change in the occupation of our people? A shortened school course for the children. A generation ago this was the school life of a majority of our boys and girls : two months in the summer and two in the winter for the boys until twelve, and the girls until fifteen ; then two months in the winter until they were of age or even older. This was the education of the average ; a few enjoyed the advantages of the academy, very many had no education except a few terms at the district school. This protracted school course decided largely the plan of teaching. The books thumbed at twelve were identical with those studied at twenty. The v^^ork in geography, arithmetic, and grammar, was a round of

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