NORMAL SCHOOL. In general, any insti tution for the professional training of teachers. In a special sense, the term is used to designate a school for the training of elementary school teachers, carried on usually by the State, some times by private enterprise, which receives stn dents who have had more or less high school training, and gives them academie and profes sional courses. Normal schools in some form are now found throughout the civilized world. usual ly as integral parts of the systems of public education in the several countries or States. The earliest successful normal school appears to have been that established by La Salle in 1685 at Rheims, France. Not until early in the nine teenth century, however, were public normal schools established in France. In Germany the first attempt to provide professional training for teachers is attributed to August Hermann Francke, who iu 1704 founded the normal school at Halle, which still bears his name. During the reign of Frederick the Great. and especially during the period after the French ltevolution, many normal schools (or teachers' seminaries, as they are called) were founded. especially in Prussia. There are to-day in Prussia alone no fewer than 116 normal schools, In Great Brit ain there is a well-developed system of public normal schools (called also teachers' training colleges), the growth chiefly of the last fifty years. The British system has been successfully extended to Canada. Australia, and South Africa. In America the first normal schools were founded in :Massachusetts in 1839 and 1840 at Lexington, Barre, and Bridgewater. They were the result, in particular, of the combined efforts of the fol lowing men toward securing, higher qualifications among teachers: Charles Brooks, who visited Prussian normal schools in 1834, and nated the ideas he had gained during the follow ing two years; of Henry Barnard• the distin guished pioneer in educational journalism and educational progress: of Edmund Dwight, who offered the Legislature $10,000 on condition that it should appropriate an equal amount to pro mote the preparation of teachers for the com mon schools; and especially of Horace Mann, who Os secretary of the State Board of Education did more than any other man to develop the nor mal school idea and to make it effective. The
course in these early normal schools included (1) the science and art of teaching the common school branches; together with (2) the subject Matter of these branches, and, if possible, of such higher studies also as algebra, geometry, general history, natural philosophy, and astrumonly; and (3) practice teaching in a model school. In the thirty years following the establishment of these schools, no fewer than fifteen leading normal schools of the highest type were established in as many different States; and many more of inferior quality. In 1595-99 there were in the United States 166 public and 165 private normal schools, with a total enrollment of 68,350 stu dents.
In standards and courses of study the normal schools of the United States vary widely. The minimum entrance requirements are indicated by the subjects in which examinations are required for aihnissinn, viz. arithmetic. geography, groin mar, composition. orthography, American 16s tory, civil government. physiology and hygiene, and penmanship. Students presenting these qualifications may be graduated on completion of a two-year course. including one year devoted to the theory and practice of teaching. The more advanced courses include high school sub jects, methotls in elementary subjects, psy chology. the science of education, history of edu cation, child study, and practice teaching. Many normal schools offer special courses for the training of kindergarten teachers.
The name Normal College has been given to certain institutions, like the Albany State Nor mal Collte, and the State Normal Col lege. which require a full high-school course for admission, and which, in addition to more ex tended professional courses than are usually of fered by normal sehook, undertake the prepara tion of teachers for secondary school,. Such in stitutions are empowered to grant pedagogical de grees.