The purely professional work of the Normal State Schools consists of:
(a) Instruction in the theory of education and its application.
(b) Actual practice in teaching, under the guidance of experienced teachers.
(c) Theory of education.
It is usual for the Normal Schools of the Eastern States to postpone the study of strictly pedagogical subjects until half or more of the course has been completed. School methods are sometimes taught in connection with academic subjects in the early part of the course; but such instruction, coming, as it does, before any principles of the science of education have been considered, or any practical experience has been gained, must be purely empirical. At the Normal School, Millersville, Pennsylvania, school management is taken during the first year, and applied psychology (as distinguished from empirical methods), history of education, and school teaching, are required during the second year. If the student takes up a further scientific or post-graduate course, additional professional studies are required—viz., psychology and the philosophy of education, ethics, logic, and professional reading. In the Westchester Normal School, Pennsylvania, no professional work is taken up until the second year. Then psychology is studied, and history of education; and methods and school practice are taken. The additional pedagogical studies for the advanced courses are the same as at Millersville. At the Normal School, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the students, after having studied the elements of psychology, during their first semester, leave all technical studies until the fourth semester, when they take up simultaneously, study of the body, study of the mind, principles of education and methods, school organization, school government, history of school laws of Massachusetts. A fifth semester, when it can be given, is devoted entirely to professional work and actual teaching. At the Normal School, New Britain, Connecticut, psychology is given four times a week during most of the two years’ course. Text-books are not used except for reference. No pure psychology is studied, but school subjects are taken up one by one, and their facts and methods of treatment are used to illustrate psychological principles. The history of education is studied side by side with this applied psychology; but not much time is given to this subject in class. The lives and works of the chief educators only are taken, and private reading is much encouraged as accessory to the class work. At the Normal School, Willimantic, Connecticut, psychology is studied one hour a day throughout the last year, and is treated almost entirely from the physiological standpoint. No special text-book is used, but Spencer and Darwin are recommended for reference. The history of education is not taken up systematically in class, but the work and influence of modern educators, such as Arnold, Thring, and Horace Mann, are thoroughly discussed. At the Normal School, Worcester, Massachusetts, class work in psychology is taken almost daily throughout the whole course. The value attributed to the subject, and the unique way in which it is studied, together with other points distinctive of the professional work, give to the Worcester School a foremost place among New England Normal Schools. The method adopted for its study is one which entirely leaves the beaten track of ordinary text-books. It does not, in the earlier stages, trouble the student with the divisions and generalities of pure psychology, but rather fixes his attention solely on the child, and seeks to gain from actual observation and individual and combined experience laws which shall be valuable aids in teaching. “The principal requests the students to observe the conduct of children in all circumstances—at home, at school, in the street, at work, at play, in conversation with one another and with adults, and record what they see and hear as soon as circumstances will permit.” The work thus suggested has been organized as a definite part of the school course, and although optional, is usually taken up by all students. It is intended, not to supplant, but to supplement later systematic instruction in psychology, and is taken up, not for the sake of the facts gained, which may or may not be of intrinsic worth, but for the value of the process of such observation to the teacher. In order to help forward the systematic study of children, a scheme of work is drawn up. Records are to be made whenever convenient, and for these records blank sheets of six different colours are provided. The colours are a means of roughly classifying the records into six groups, thus:
(i.) Facts of personal observation.
(ii.) Facts related by others, together with names of recorder and observer.
(iii.) Personal reminiscences of childhood.
(iv.) Facts gained from books.
(v.) Observations on exceptional or defective children.