Two-teacher Rural School.
Kansas State Normal School, Emporia.
Institutions of Higher Learning. The deep interest of the Kansas settlers in matters of education is nowhere more apparent than in their early establishment of institutions of higher learning. In the first Constitution, made in 1855, one reads, “The General Assembly may take measures for the establishment of a university”; and again, “Provisions may be made by law for the support of normal schools.” These matters were not lost sight of, and almost immediately after the admission of Kansas as a state this ambition found expression in the establishment of the Normal School, the Agricultural College, and the University.
Rural High School.
The Normal Schools. The State Normal School at Emporia opened in 1865 with eighteen students enrolled. It used the upper floor of the new schoolhouse that had just been built for Emporia which was then but a small town. There was no furniture, and the equipment consisted of a Bible and a dictionary. Seats were borrowed from a neighboring church. But the Normal soon had a building of its own. In later years this has been three times replaced by a larger and better one and many new buildings have been added.
Manual Training Normal School, Pittsburg.
The Normal School is based on the principle that it is not only necessary to know what to teach but how to teach; that there are new discoveries and advances in methods of teaching as there are in other lines, such as medicine or farming. The purpose of the Normal School is to train teachers.