time to the technical training of teachers not only for the elementary but the advanced schools.

In 1870 the city of New York opened a normal college for the purpose of preparing teachers for the public schools of that city, and from which the supply is largely drawn; and in nearly every other city of the State special schools or classes are continually maintained for the same purpose. In most cities of the State no teachers are certified or employed who, in addition to scholastic attainments, do not show a year or more of professional training. A bill to establish this principle in all cities and villages employing a superintendent of schools passed the last legislature with but little opposition, and only failed to become a law for want of the approval of the governor. The law would only have hastened matters somewhat. The inevitable trend is in this direction. The city that does not exact as much will soon find itself behind the times. With or without law the time will soon come when some special and technical training will be exacted on the part of all persons seeking employment in the schools of our cities and villages.

In the country the uniform system of simultaneous examinations for teachers and the multiplication of teachers' training classes in the academies and union schools are leading steadily in the same direction.

The Empire State has a proud record upon this matter, and I refer to it with pride and satisfaction. She commenced the work of training teachers early. I do not claim for the fathers who inaugurated the work sixty years ago a very clear comprehension of the problems involved. They probably knew but little of psychology and pedagogy. They were not thinking of technical or professional training. They were looking for teachers who had knowledge without much reference to the art of transmitting it successfully.

In making provision at public expense for even the education of such they builded up academies in all parts of the State, and created centers where learning glowed to radiate and illumine all the country round about. They reared and trained scholars who, in their turn, stimulated and promoted educational and public-school development everywhere. They heightened the general intelligence, and hastened the time when the common sentiment of the people will forbid that helpless children shall be delivered into the care of other children, or of weaklings and unfortunates on the one hand, as well as the unfit favorites of small politicians on the other. They opened the way for the early understanding of the difficult problem involved, and the general acceptance of the proposition that teachers in the schools must be not only liberally educated, but specially and technically trained, or come short of the requirements of the service. Ali honor to the statesmanship which inaugurated as well as to that which has since sustained and prosecuted this work so intelligently and generously. It has contributed more than it knew to the intellectual and moral health of the commonwealth.

VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS.

The remaining great influence which has promoted the healthful development of our public-school system, and which I shall feel justified in taking time to consider, is that of the voluntary associations of the friends of education, and particularly of teachers. This influence has been a most consequential one. The order in which I mention it must not be accepted as an indication of its importance. I think you will find the subject interesting. I know you would if there was time to thoroughly investigate it.

1 They borrowed from France and Germany.

"Note the new college in New York City for training of teachers.

"SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATED TEACHERS," NEW YORK CITY, 1794.

In the custody of the State library at Albany, in company with the original André papers, the original copy of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the original of Washington's Farewell Address, there is a manuscript volume of more interest to us than any of them. It is the original minutes of the first permanent or continuing teachers' association in America. It was an association of schoolmasters, organized in New York City in May, 1794.

The minutes are neatly and correctly kept, and indicate that any one of the secretaries would have been able to pass the State examination if they had had mechanical contrivances for testing the qualifications of teachers in those days. The journal shows that meetings were held with much regularity at least till 1807. The first meeting was held May 15, 1794, at the schoolroom of Citizen Gad Ely." The first resolution adopted after agreeing to organize was one that the person filling the chair for the time being be authorized to call to order any member when necessary." The fact that this precaution was deemed necessary will at once put us on terms of easy fellowship with these early teachers. John Wood was chosen chairman, and John Winchell secretary. Fifteen persons were present at the first meeting. Opposite nearly every name in the list, some hand has written the words "since dead." It was essentially a secret society. It may seem superfluous, therefore, to state the related fact that no ladies were admitted. Members were elected by ballot, requiring a three-fourths vote to elect, and were received into membership by an initiatory ceremony. The admission fee was $1. Meetings were held in the schoolrooms or at the residences of the members, and ordinarily about every week.

From the 21st of March to the 21st of September the association met at 8 o'clock and adjourned at 10, and from the 21st of September to the 21st of March it met at 7 and adjourned at 9 o'clock. The time of meeting suggests early hours and regular habits in somewhat striking contrast with those observed by their successors in office. Six shillings were paid to the secretary that he might purchase a record book, and he secured a good one, bound in leather, every page of which is water lined, with an English coat of arms and the letters "G. R.," in remembrance of the fact that one of the Georges was King.

On July 21, 1794, the common council granted the association the right to meet in the common council chamber at such time as the same shall not be occupied by the public on business or by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, the Medical Society, or the St. Cecilia's Society." With the assurance of a veteran the infant at once drew on the St. Cecilia's Society to change its night of meeting for the better convenience of the schoolmasters' association.

The officers were a president, secretary, and steward. They served for three months, were required to take an obligation or pledge to perform faithfully the duties of the several offices, and the president and secretary were fined 25 cents and the steward 18 cents for each absence, unless excused.

But with all these incidental matters, which inspire a smile, this association did substantial work. Its proceedings were of practical interest and importance. The association assumed to act as a breakwater against incompetency in the schools. A committee of seven was appointed to examine persons wishing to teach, and such as they found worthy they certified to be so. It is to be hoped that they did not forget that they were once young and inexperienced themselves. The association also examined and recommended text-books, and evidently compelled such text-book publishers as there were to treat the society with proper and becoming respect. The city library conferred upon the association one membership right in that institution, and a reader' was appointed to examine the books and report any information he might receive for the good of the society.

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When any student was so disorderly as to oblige the master to expel him the facts of the case were reported for the information of all. The association assisted its members in collecting tuition fees from slow patrons. Among the subjects considered the following are observed, viz: "Is silent study or studying aloud most conducive to the improvement of scholars?" "Whether a systematical method of teaching penmanship is more eligible than such methods as are commonly pursued?” Whether the practice of good flagellations by the tutor is advantageous to the good regulation of a school?" Whether it is better to subject the passions to reason or root them out?" "Ought any religion further than morality be inculcated in the schools?" Whether an indolent person of great abilities or one of inferior talents and assiduity makes the best teacher? ..Is the same mode of education equally applicable to the male and female sex?"

They decided that a theater, under the usual regulations, was not unfavorable to morals;" and that "the present situation of affairs was unfavorable to matrimony;" that "it would not be good policy to manumit slaves in America immediately," and the association seems to have gone to pieces in trying to decide whether the mental powers of the aborigines of North America were equal to those of the Europeans."

These reminiscenses of this the earliest of teachers' associations might be continued almost indefinitely. But so much must suffice for the present. It was a primitive organization but it shows a devotion to their calling on the part of these old teachers. With steadfast earnestness they continued for thirteen years at least to maintain a teachers association for mutual improvement and the advancement of their schools. They had no precedents to guide them, no successes and failures to light their path. They did not copy; they originated. History has not yet done them justice, but it may not always be so. The State Teachers' Association may well stand with uncovered head while it respects and honors their memory.

OTHER LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS.

From the time when the State really assumed a share in the support and supervision of schools, city, county, and town associations of teachers became common and have no small part in determining the characteristics of the school system. Almost every page in the early books and periodicals related to the interests of education reports the doings of these local associations. As early as 1830 the State superintendent headed a movement for the organization of county and town associations and for the holding of public celebrations, and as a result there was marked activity in the way of organizations in all directions and a notable increase of public interest in all the affairs of the schools.

FIRST STATE CONVENTION OF TEACHERS.

The first State convention of teachers in this State, and the first in any State, so far as my investigations have gone, was held at Utica in October, 1830. Undoubtedly a thorough investigation would reveal the circumstances which led to this gathering, as well as the facts touching its character and its transactions. It is shrouded in some mystery, however. I am certain of but one thing concerning it, and that is that it resolved upon and provided for calling a future convention.

The fact that it called another convention only three months later indicates that it was a slim affair and did little, if anything, beyond this. The next State teachers' convention was held at Utica January 12, 13, and 14, 1831. Rev. Henry Davis, D. D., of Hamilton College, was president. Most of the counties were represented, and most of the names of the active school men of the day appear in the roll of the convention, but we examine it in vain for the name of a woman. Com

mittees were appointed as follows, viz: On the qualifications of teachers; on the studies and exercises proper for common schools; on appointing one or more agents for carrying into effect the objects of the convention; on the construction and furnishing of schoolrooms; on the school law of the State.

The question as to whether the State should establish normal schools or utilize the academies for educating teachers was as hot then as it ever has been since. The convention, for obvious reasons, declared in favor of utilizing the existing schools.

The committee on "Studies and exercises in the schools" reported that the following studies should be pursued, viz: Reading, writing, spelling, mental and practical arithmetic, geography, English grammar, composition, a method of keeping accounts, some brief systems of political economy, and some of the simpler parts of the natural sciences." The committee observe that they are aware that their list is too large to be pursued in a single school, especially if the number of pupils is large. They urge, by way of a solution of the difficulty, that one teacher should never have charge of more than 30 or 40 pupils, and that where the school is larger than this grading should be resorted to. The committee urge, among other things, that the schools should "call into action the intellectual powers of the pupils and teach them by independent investigation to arrive at conclusions for themselves which shall be according to truth;" that pupils "should not waste time in loading the memory with what is not understood:" that they "should not be suffered to pronounce words without a knowledge of their meaning;” that in arithmetic pupils may derive much valuable improvement by the help of sensible objects, without being burdened with rules above their comprehension."

This convention sixty years ago also faced the text-book question, but precipitately surrendered in its presence, and contented itself with saying that while the multiplicity of text-books was a great evil, still they thought it unwise for them to enter a field which would require them to discriminate, and with apparent solemnity expressed the belief that "if a remedy shall be found out for the other defects in the system of common-school instruction the text-book evil will gradually disappear."

To all of this the convention agreed. It also provided for a State agent to go about, hold meetings, arouse the people, encourage teachers, organize lyceums, etc. The convention seems to have been in something of a fog concerning the improvement of schoolrooms. It declared that "schoolhouses are too small, the ceilings too low, the windows placed quite too near the floor, and that too little regard is paid to the ventilation of the rooms." But, in its opinion, the methods of remedying these defects were "too plain to require explanation.”

Then it immediately proceeded to explain and suggest that "instead of the plain ceilings in common use arched ones might be constructed with great advantage and at little additional expense," and that "for the purpose of ventilating the rooms the contrivance should be rather to let down the upper than to raise the lower sash of the windows, as by that means the greater portion of the air rendered unfit for respiration may be easily expelled without exposing the students seated next to the wall to currents which pass through the windows or tempting them to gaze at external objects to the neglect of their proper studies." As a master stroke in the then budding sciences of school economy and school architecture, the convention proposed that all schools should adopt the plan upon which the principal room in the Lowville Academy was constructed, and proceeded to describe it as follows, viz: "The students are so seated for study that while no two of them can see each other, the instructor has a full view of all his pupils. This mode of seating pupils is easily carried into effect by having the base of the building a dodecagon or a polygon of a less number of sides separated into two unequal divisions by a partition, and in the larger division should be the seat and

table of the instructor. On the floor of the principal room there should be constructed three or four concentric ranges of seats, ascending from the center toward the periphery of the room, as in a theater, and crossed by partitions 5 feet high, regularly converging toward the instructor's seat." If pupils failed to emerge from this formidable machine with their physical, mental, and moral natures thoroughly developed and well polished off, the educational situation would seem to be in as serious a fix as the pupils were when in the box.

We must pass from this early convention, although we might pursue our investigations into its proceedings with great interest. The convention concluded its deliberations by organizing a New York State Lyceum and by adopting an address to the public in which it set forth, with much ability, the needs of the schools, and called a meeting of the "friends of education from every State in the Union," in New York city, on the first Wednesday in the following May, for the formation of a National Lyceum-a republic of letters, coextensive with one political confederacy, whose aim it shall be to establish, as far as practicable, a universal system of education, reciprocally to yield and enjoy the advantages of each other's discovery, to bind ourselves to firmer union by the humane yet intimate association of literature and science, and relieve the asperities of conflicting interests and selfish jealousies by the interchange of intellectual treasure."

OTHER STATE CONVENTIONS.

Other conventions were subsequently held, but not with regularity, until 1845. One occurred at Albany in September, 1836, and another at Utica in May, 1837. In May, 1842, a State convention of county superintendents was held at Utica, which was presided over by Jabez D. Hammond, the author of the "Political History of New York." Forty-two of the fifty-nine counties were represented, and Colonel Young, the State superintendent, Horace Mann, and many eminent men were present and participated in the deliberations. Subsequent gatherings of the same character were held at Rochester in 1843, at Albany in 1844, at Syracuse in 1845, and at Albany again in 1846.

PERMANENT ORGANIZATION OF "THE STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION."

A most important convention assembled at Syracuse on July 30 and 31, 1845, if its importance is to be measured by permanent results. It was the first meeting of a permanent and enduring State teachers' association. On the first day 185 delegates were present from thirty-two counties. On the next day 300 teachers were present. William Ross, of Seneca, was temporary, and J. W. Bulkley, of Albany, permanent president. Substantially the first business was to invite all the text-book agents to address the convention, and Mr. A. L. Smith, of New York, agent for Smith's geography, arithmetic, grammar, and divers other books; Mr. H. H. Hawley, publisher of Perkins's mathematical series; Mr. Silas Cornell, manufacturer of globes; Mr. A. R. Boyle, a phonographist; Mr. B. Mortimer, agent for Salem Town's books, and others, overcame the traditional and proverbial modesty of their craft sufficiently to advocate their respective claims before the convention. This convention discussed ably and seriously the leading educational questions of the day, including the reading of the Bible in the schools, the necessity for pedagogical literature, school discipline, and the education and elevation of the teaching profession. It determined upon and effected a permanent organization which has met each year since, except that the meeting of 1850, which was to have been in New York city, was not held because of the prevalence of cholera. This gathering constitutes the forty-fifth in the series of annual meetings.

And what a notable and noble series of educational meetings it has been! How they have been anticipated, and how they have been remembered! What tender ties of affection have been here welded! How many minds have been here opened