The order of subjects, and relative times devoted to academic and professional studies, is approximately the same for all the Normal Schools of New York State. Taking the schools of Oswego and Oneonta as examples, we find:—

Three Years’ Course: Psychology, philosophy, history of education and methods of teaching various subjects, taken up for the first half of the third year, and sometimes made to extend into the second half of the same year.

Four Years’ Course: The same work, chiefly done in the first half of the fourth year.

It is maintained by some, that all the Normal School work is professional, in that throughout the curriculum the aim is to present the subject matter of instruction in the way that the teacher should present it to his or her class of children, and so to make the lessons model lessons. I was present at some excellent lessons of this kind: a geography lesson and a history lesson in the Bridgewater Normal School. But for the most part the needs of the Normal School pupils themselves, and not the needs of imaginary future school children, have to be considered, and the Normal School lessons or “recitations” resolve themselves into ordinary school lessons. Even if we assume, however, that this is not the case, and that great skill is shown on the part of the Normal School teacher, may not such a plan of teaching “Methods” be dangerous, in that it encourages imitation and rigidity. Such appears to me to be the tendency of the generally adopted plan, of giving professional training in “Methods,” by actual lessons in the various subjects given by the Normal School teacher; and the danger of encouraging cut and dried methods is intensified where it is the custom for a Normal School student to give a lesson to children, or her fellow-students in that subject and section of a subject which has just been presented to her by the Normal School teacher. It is maintained by others that apart from any advantage which may accrue to the students from hearing good lessons in the various subjects they will have to teach, it is absolutely necessary that each student should change her standpoint, and review the various branches of knowledge as a teacher, rather than as a pupil. This, it is argued, is secured by such a plan of teaching “Methods.” As a third motive, it is held that direct teaching of ordinary school subjects is necessary before beginning pedagogical instruction, on account of the inadequate and unequal preparation which the future teachers bring to their work. It seems to me that both these necessities might be obviated by more rigid requirements for admission to Normal Schools. The well-equipped High Schools can do the academic work of the Normal Schools with less effort than can the Normal Schools themselves; and were the standards of admission such as to necessitate a thoroughly sound preliminary knowledge in common school subjects, might not the Normal School students be found more capable of themselves reviewing old facts from a new standpoint, and the schools have more time and opportunity to carry out other means of training?

Academic Studies.

It is a marked feature in the academic work of Normal Schools that great importance is given to the teaching of science. Here, as in American Schools in general, a large place in the curriculum is given to what is known as “nature study.” Extensive laboratories, for the different branches of science, are fitted up in most of the schools; books, microscopes, physical, chemical and biological apparatus, specimens for observation and dissection, are supplied free to students; outdoor work is organized, weather-charts are kept daily, and students are encouraged to use the school workshops for making simple physical apparatus for their own use. In all the schools great stress is laid upon practical work by each individual student. The following list shows the number of lesson-hours given to science at the Normal School, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Two Years’ Course:
1st year. 1st term12 hours per week.
2nd ” 7 ” ”
2nd year. 1st term 6 ” ”
2nd ” 5 ” ”
Four Years’ Course:
1st year. 1st term 2 ” ”
2nd ” 10 ” ”
2nd year. 1st term 7 ” ”
2nd ” 2 ” ”
3rd year. 1st term 4 ” ”
2nd ” 8 ” ”
4th year. 1st term 8 ” ”
2nd ” 4 ” ”

The school, which numbers 274 pupils, has five laboratories—viz., chemical, physical, physiological and zoological, geological and industrial, and the equipment of these, and the care with which students kept daily records of laboratory work, were its special features. The chemical laboratory is in two sections: one for elementary, and one for advanced students, and between these is a teachers’ laboratory. The students’ daily records of work are carefully examined by the teacher, and much use is made, by both teachers and students, of the continuous wall slate round the class-rooms and laboratories. Physiology is taught by aid of the skeleton and life-size models, also by the dissection of lower animals, and microscopical examination of tissues. The methods and means adopted for geology and geography teaching at Bridgewater seemed to be particularly good. In the school museum were duplicate collections of rocks and minerals, classified on various bases; and in addition to these, the school possessed two sets of trays of working specimens, one set containing labelled typical class specimens, and the other containing unlabelled specimens for identification by students. Books, giving printed directions for work, interleaved with blank sheets for observations, notes and drawings, were provided for all students. I heard two excellent lessons in geography at this school. One on the Slopes of the United States was well worked out with the students in sand, great care being taken by the teacher to state and compare actual distances, so that the relief-map should not convey an impression of false proportion. The other was a lesson in map-drawing from memory. All students had places at the slate round the room, and two minutes were given to draw the outline of a map previously prepared. Then one minute was given for the drawing of a particularly difficult isolated part of the outline. When this was done, a correct map was uncovered, and students were required to correct their own drawings. After the drawings had been individually criticised by the teacher, faults were generalized, and help was given.

The special features of the science work at the Normal School, Willimantic, Connecticut, is the emphasis placed on manual training, and its practical connection with all science teaching. All students, men and women, are required to invent, or make with their own hands, simple apparatus for teaching the elementary facts of physics. I saw students in the workshops, making relief-maps and models for their lessons. One was constructing a very simple model of a water-wheel, to illustrate lessons on the conservation of energy; another was making a relief-map of paper pulp, on a ground of blue-painted wood.

In this school the students do not, as a rule, follow stated text-books in science. Wide reading is encouraged, and there is an excellent library of standard text-books and works of reference. There is also a model library of children’s literature for the students’ use, and an exhibition of the latest devices for “busy-work.” “Busy-work” is the work done alone by one section of a class, while the other is being directly taught by the teacher. All sorts of occupations are devised by the clever teacher for impressing facts already learnt, and the “busy-work” hour is frequently employed in cutting out outline maps, sorting beads, counting beans, etc. The object of the exhibition of “busy-work” at Willimantic is to encourage examination and criticism of such devices with regard to their educational value. The figures representing the amount granted to this Normal School last year, for “busy-work” exhibits, library books, text-books, periodicals, etc., were kindly given to me by the Principal, and I note them here, as an illustration of the readiness of New England States to furnish school supplies and apparatus. A few details of expenditure for the past year, which was by no means an exceptional year, are: