In 1823 Rev. Samuel Hall opened a school •at Concord, Vt., for the training of teachers. He was sent to this town as a preacher by the Domestic Missionary Society of Vermont. He consented to remain upon the distinct under standing that he should be allowed to organize a school for the training of teachers. He ad mitted to his school a class of young pupils for the purpose of having the opportunity of showing those whom he was training the best methods of teaching and of disciplining and governing a school. The literature relative to this school shows that Hr. Hall had no, textbooks, periodical or other helps or equip ment, and that tie conducted the school on his own knowledge and judgment of educational methods of procedure and his experience in teaching. Growing out of his experience .in •this school he gave a series of lectures on "school keeping." There was a great demand for this work and the supply was soon ex hausted. The State of New York purchased 10,000 copies of this volume and put one in each of the school districts of the State.
While those who believed it was not neces sary to establish separate institutions to train teachers and that adequate provision could be afforded for such work in existing institutions had won a victory in the State of New York, the question was not permanently settled. The training of teachers was being considered in a broad, comprehensive manner by thoughtful educators, by State supervisory school officers, by governors and by State legislatures. The strong presentation of the subject by Walter R. Johnson of Germantown, Pa., published in 1825 and of Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet in the same year had made a deep impression upon those who were specifically interested in the solution of the problem. Dr. Philip Lindsley in his inaugural address as president of Cum berland College, Nashville, Tenn., in 1825, stated that the teacher needed training for his work as much as a lawyer or doctor and urged the establishment of teachers' seminaries and in 1826 he appeared before the legislature of that State and advocated the establishment of such seminaries. In the same year Gov. DeWitt Clinton in his message to the legislature of New York also advocated the establishment of a seminary for teachers. In 1826 State Super intendent Spencer in a special report to the senate of New York also urged the plan of teachers' seminaries. Governor Lincoln of Massachusetts in his messages of 1826 and 1827 to the legislature of that State urged the import ance of making provision for the training of teachers. The American Institute of Instruc tion petitioned the legislature of Massachusetts upon the same subject in 1827. Dr. George Junkin, president of Lafayette College, and Rev. Chauncey Colton, president of Bristol College, in 1833 urged upon the legislature of Pennsyl vania the establishment of courses in colleges for the training of teachers and that the com mon schools in the town should be used as practice departments. In December 1829, 57 citizens of Rochester, N. Y., called a public meeting in that city to consider the educational needs of the times. This committee prepared a report which was adopted by the meeting and among the recommendations was one for a State seminary to train teachers. A compre hensive plan was proposed for the administra tion of the seminary and for the course of study. This plan proposed "a farm of 100 to 200 acres, under the direction of an intelligent but practical farmer, a garden and a nursery under the direction of a practical gardener and nurseryman and a mechanics' shop with a gen eral assortment of tools, such as the miscella neous business of the farm and garden may require." In 1836 a public meeting of citizens in Philadelphia recommended the establishment of a teachers' seminary as an independent in stitution containing a three years' course of study and a model school. In the same year State Superintendent Burrowes of Pennsyl vania recommended an appropriation of $10,000 for the establishment of two institutions — one in the eastern part of the State and the other in the western part, for the training of teach ers. In 1829 the 'Annals of Education> edited by Woodbridge published a translation from a Germin periodical giving an account of the Prussian seminaries for the training of teach ers. Articles on and translations of Cousin's 'Report on Public Instruction in Germany) appeared between 1830 and 1835. These were published extensively by the newspapers in all parts of the country. It was out of all these discussions and proposals that the normal school idea developed in America. There were two men in Massachusetts who rendered a vital service in the successful effort to establish a normal school. These men were Mr. Charles Brooks and Mr. James G. Carter. Mr. Brooks made a careful study of the Prussian system of normal schools and in a Thanksgiving sermon in 1835 at Hingham he explained that system. He prepared three lectures on the subject which he delivered in various parts of the State. He issued a circular inviting citizens of Plymouth County to meet him to consider the subject. This invitation included every board of select men, every school committee and every clergy man in the county. A large audience greeted him at the courthouse. The address so im pressed Ichabod Morton that he offered to con tribute $1,000 for the establishment of a normal school at Plymouth. Mr. Brooks traveled over 2,000 miles, delivering addresses in the State, and contributed a continuous series of articles on the subject to the .newspapers. The house of representatives invited him to address that body, and, in January 1837, he addressed that house twice. 'He also addressed the legislatures of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and New Jersey, and many cities and villages in other States. Mr. Carter, who has often been called the "Father of Normal Schools,* bad given a comprehensive outline of his plan for training teachers in the articles which he wrote for the Boston Patriot in 1824-25. He specified three essential elements in the work of a normal school. These were: (1) the development of sound scholarship; (2) a course of study upon the science and art of education; (3) a model or practice school. Nearly a century later
these three points are the vital features of the normal schools of America. The people of the town of Lancaster, Mass., offered to aid him in the establishment of a school in Lancaster, but later put obstacles in his way and the project failed. In 1835 Mr. Carter was elected to the legislature. and in 1836 he was made chairman of the committee on education. He urged the legislature to establish a seminary to train teachers, but failed in his efforts. He drew the bill providing for a State Board of Educa tion, which became a law in 1837, and in 1838 his generalship and addresses brought about the enactment of the Normal School Law. Horace Mann, who was president of the Massachusetts senate, was chosen the first secretary of the State Board of Education in 1837. Mr. Mann was a strong advocate of the establishment of State normal schools. He obtained a promise from Edmund Dwight to provide $10,000 for the establishment of institutions to train teach ers if the State would appropriate an addi tional. $10,000. Mr. Mann communicated this proposition to the legislature 12 March 1838, and on 22 March a joint committee which had considered the subject reported a resolution appropriating $10,000 to the State Board of Education for the training of teachers, conditioned on an additional $10,000 being paid to said board to aid in the enterprise. Governor Edward Everett gave executive approval to the resolution 19 April. The State Board was not restricted in the type of institution which it should establish. The action of the legisla ture gave that body the right to exercise its discretion. The State Board decided to estab lish three normal schools. The first of these institutions was opened at Lexington on 3 July 1839, with three pupils. The school was later removed to Framingham, and of course has the distinction of being the first normal school established in America. The second school was established at Barre in the same year, but was later removed to Westfield. Mr. Cyrus Pierce was the first principal of the Lexington school. The wisdom, the energy and the diplomacy of Horace Mann and of Principal Pierce made possible the success of this initial effort tO establish a normal school in the United States. The third school was estab lished at Bridgewater in 1840. The real battle ground for the establishment of normal schools was in Massachusetts and New York. Al though those who favored the organization of training classes in New York had won a tern porary victory, the campaign for' a separate institution devoted solely to the training of teachers was continued in that State. The work accomplished in these training classes had not proved satisfactory. State Superintendent Spencer in 1840 appointed Dr. Alonzo Potter of Union College, later Bishop Potter of Phila delphia, and Hon. D. H. Little, a committee to examine these classes. The report of Dr. Pot ter was adverse to the training classes and rec ommended the establishment of a normal school. Superintendent Spencer had long been an advocate of training teachers in the acad emies and did not, therefore, agree with the re port of Dr. Potter. Spencer was succeeded in office by Col. Samuel Young, a warm advocate of the normal school idea. Young was sup ported by Governor Seward and Governor Bouck. He made speeches throughout the State in favor of organizing a normal school and called a State meeting of deputy superin tendents, similar to county superintendents, at Utica in 1842. This was a notable meeting. Gen. John A. Dix, who later became Secretary of War, Secretary of State andgovernor of New York; Hon. John C. Spencer, Secretary War; Horace Mann, secretary of the Massa chusetts State Board of Education; Dr. George B. Emerson of Boston, and Rev. Wil liam Gallaudet of Connecticut, attended this meeting. These distinguished guests from New England came upon invitation to express their views upon the normal school idea. The convention endorsed indirectly theplan to or ganize a normal school. Hon. C. T. Hulburd, chairman of the assembly committee on com mon schools, submitted an exhaustive report to the legislature of 1844 favoring the estab lishment of a normal school. A measure au thorizing the establishment of such a school at Albany waspassed by the legislature in 1844 appropriating $10,000 annually for period of five years. The establishment of these schools in Massachusetts and in New York did prevent their enemies front opposing the continuation or development of such schools. Governor Dix of New York who had been friendly to the academies for many years was decidedly hostile to such schools in his message of 1874, and Governor Robinson in' his messages of 1877 and 1879 made a direct attack upon normal schools and stated that they were °wholly useless" In the same year the legislature authorized an inves tigation of such schools. In 1840 the house representatives of Massachusetts directed the committee on education to consider the ex pedience of abolishing the State Board of Edu cation and the State normal schools. A major ity of that committee prepared a report rec ommending that both should be abolished and presented a bill to carry out such non. The measure failed to pass. It is in the face of such determined opposition as above outlined that the normal schools have arisen in America. The success of these first institu tions in Massachusetts and of the Albany school made it possible to develop the system of nor mal schools now in existence in the United States. Others were gradually established. The New Britain school was organized in 1849, the Ypsilanti in 1852 and about 70 others pre vious to 1875. At the present time there are 237 public State normal schools, and before the war the number of students in attendance upon such institutions preparing to become teachers was nearly 100,000. There are also 45 private normal schools attended by nearly 6,000 pupils.