The examination for admission shall be under the control of the trustees of such school and the State superintendent. The examination for graduation shall be conducted by a board, consisting of the State superintendent, the principal of the normal school, and a practical teacher, who shall be annually appointed by the governor from the Congressional district in which such school is located.

Such board is empowered to grant certificates of graduation to all who pass the required examination in the first course or in both courses, but they also have power to "revoke said certificates upon cause shown."

The courses of study consist, for the first course, of geometry, school discipline, English, botany, physiology, algebra, drawing, education, arithmetic, psychology, geography, pedagogics, history of United States and civics, mental arithmetic twice a week through the first year, penmanship and physics, each once a week, gymnastics, and vocal music. This course extends through two years of two terms each.

The second course, of one and one-half years, includes algebra, geometry, rhetoric, Thomson's Seasons, physics, general history, history of education, Bacon's Essays or Milton's Paradise Lost, English literature, astronomy, and moral philosophy.

The terms are 20 weeks each.

The second course follows the first, and its methods are adapted to the larger knowledge and higher culture of the students.

Candidates for graduation must have been pupils in a Vermont State normal for one full school year.

They must be recommended as being prepared for graduation, to the examining committee, by the principal of the school at which they complete the course of study.

Their moral character must be approved by the principal and by the president of the board of trustees of the school.

Candidates for graduation from the second course must have passed a satisfactory examination in the first course.

The tuition fee is $12 per term; reading room 25 cents, and the fee for text-books $1 per term. The entire cost of board, books, and stationery for twenty weeks is usually less than $80.

In July and August, 1875, the trustees enlarged the building to double its previous capacity by an expenditure the basis of which was a subscription raised among the friends of the school.

The school has a philosophical apparatus sufficient for illustration of the fundamental principles in natural philosophy and to some extent in chemistry. It has a well selected and finely arranged cabinet of minerals and rocks, and a choice botanical collection, together with some natural-history specimens. These are all of a character to be used in the daily recitations in the subjects to which they relate, and have been proved to be very valuable helps.

There are two libraries proper, one belonging to the town of Randolph, held in trust for many years by the Orange County Grammar

School, which is composed of old and well-worn volumes; the other under the control of the literary society connected with the school, which is composed of books for general reading, historical, biographical, and of the current literature.

The school is well supplied with charts, maps, and books of reference, among which is Reese's Encyclopædia, through the liberality of the trustees, supplemented by generous contributions of the principal, Edward Conant.

The trustees of the Randolph State Normal have been fortunate in their choice of men to administer its affairs. Principal A. E. Leavenworth, who succeeded Mr. Conant in December, 1874, was a native of Charlotte, Vt. He had studied at the university, and, after an efficient military service, had distinguished himself as an educator, and especially during the years from 1868 to 1875, while in charge of the academy at New Haven, now called the Beeman Academy. He was ever warm hearted, impulsive, generous to a fault, enthusiastic in the work, and became at once a popular teacher at Randolph. Mr. Leavenworth resigned in July, 1879; he spent the two following years in the State, making a fine collection of fossils, and regaining health and strength. In August, 1881, he entered upon his new duties as principal of the Castleton Normal.

Mr. Andrew W. Edson, who was next chosen principal, was born in Wisconsin, but was a resident of Brookfield, Vt., from early boyhood. He was a graduate of the district schools, of the Randolph Normal in 1870, of the Vermont Conference Seminary, at Montpelier, in 1874, and of Dartmouth College in 1878.

Upon taking up the new work he at once began to make a special study of the professional needs of the school, both by careful reading of theory and by actual observation of the work done in other normal schools of New England, comparing their needs and advantages with our own, introducing tried and approved methods with such adaptation as our own circumstances required, adding to the curriculum of the school several strictly professional studies, and to the library many books in this special line.

While this gave a decided professional aspect to the school Mr. Edson never allowed it to absorb the thought of the school. He enlisted a wide-awake interest in all subjects that the people need to know and think of, being himself actively interested in them, and requiring constant reference to the sources of information in the rapidly growing library. More and more the school came to study by topics, more and more the pupils came to see that only their own active thought could reach any satisfactory result in any line. Mr. Edson himself well illustrated the transition of the "ideal teacher" of the last century, from the bookworm of uncertain muscle and digestion and executive ability to the ideal man of the present day, who is alive in any profession.

Mr. Edson remained from 1879 to 1884, and made the school more than ever before a training school for teachers. He is now one of the agents of the State board of education in Massachusetts.

* * *

Few minds that touched looking sharply at every This was our most valua

Hon. Edward Conant, the first and present principal, is thus pleasantly remembered by one of his former pupils: What seems to have been the essence of his mental teaching was "a reverence for exact truth exactly stated, and few who have seen it will ever forget his persistence as he insisted upon accurate answers. his did not take upon themselves habits of statement, and weighing well every word. ble acquisition from the class room-a method of doing rather than an overtaxed memory. For the positive, aggressive influence, Mr. Conant generated in his study and in his rambles across the fields. and up the rugged hillsides a spiritual and mental power that gave an impetus to the heaviest mind, a motion of accuracy to the most vague, a determination to the most vacillating, an ideal so noble and so pure that it made itself seen and felt by the blindest and grossest in the circle of its influence. How many who read these words will feel that they but half express what the man was to them, as he lived before them each day as if it contained all the days that had been and all that were to be.' Of the strength of his presence in the community as well as in the school much might be written. The record is kept in the hearts of the people."

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His instructions to large bodies of teachers in county and State conventions, his advice and recommendations printed in public reports, have probably exercised a more direct influence for good than those of any other man in the State, unless it was J. S. Adams, of Burlington,

THE NORMAL SCHOOL AT JOHNSON.

Mr. S. H. Pearl, the last principal of the academy, and the first of the normal school, was a "man of mark." He came in the fall of 1863, bringing into the school a fund of enthusiasm, of new methods and ideas, which did not fail to impress themselves upon the public in general, as well as upon his own special pupils. It was largely through his influence that the normal school was located at Johnson, and the building fitted to receive it, which was done in three and a half years after his coming. He graduated nine classes from the normal school, and it is safe to say that never will one of his graduates forget him or cease to bless his memory. He so impressed his personality upon his pupils, and made them feel the greatness of their responsibility in the vocation for which they were fitting, that life assumed a new meaning and depth to many a young mind and heart.

Mr. Pearl worked well, but not wisely for himself, perhaps exemplifying his favorite maxim, "It is better to wear out than to rust out;" but those who wished for him a long career of usefulness 3177—14

would rather he had been content to have rusted a little, if need be, than to have worn out so prematurely. In 1871 he went to the normal school in Plymouth, N. H., where he was as deservedly popular; but his work was short, closing in death August 4, 1873.

The second normal school principal was Mr. C. D. Mead. He was born at Essex, N. Y.. graduated at Middlebury College, began his work as an educator in Westport, N. Y., and came to Johnson in 1871. Prior to this engagement Mr. Mead had also taught in Middlebury, in Malden, Mass., and for five years in an academy at Maquoketa, Iowa. Returning East, he taught for nine years in Swanton, then one year in the normal school, and thereafter became principal of the Middlebury High School. Mr. Mead enrolled 14 first-course graduates and 3 from the second course. He was assisted at Johnson by Miss Anna L. Oakes, a graduate of the institution. Miss Oakes was also elected for eleven successive years as a teacher of the Middlebury Grammar School and returned to Johnson in 1884 as a teacher of mathematics.

From 1872 to 1875 Harlan S. Perrigo, A. M., acted as principal of the school. During this period the school improved in its methods and results and gained in public favor. The number of graduates from the first and second course was, respectively, 32 and 5. During 18751881 the principal was William. C. Crippen, a native of West Rutland. He graduated from the second course of the Randolph Normal School in January, 1875, and at once went, as principal, to Johnson. Mr. Crippen's native talent manifested itself in a variety of activities introduced into school work, which resulted in a consequent increase in attendance of 300 per cent. The death of his wife in 1880 led to his resignation. The assistant teachers during Mr. Crippen's administration were all graduates of either the Randolph of Johnson normal schools. There were 113 graduates from the first course and 19 from the second.

The fifth principal was Edward Conant, A. M., 1881-1884, an extended notice of whom has already been given. He succeeded, with the aid of Rev. A. A. Smith, president of the board of trustees, in not only regrading the village schools, but in so arranging the studies in them as to make them fitting schools for the normal. Mr. Conant also took the primary department of the district school for a model school in connection with the normal. It hardly needs to be added that his work in this school was of a high order and went straight to accomplishing the objects he thought were needed. The standard of the school was advanced. More was required of the pupil to enter the school and more to graduate. The increased requirements for admission and the lengthened course occasioned the loss of some students, but he considered the benefits to be derived from the change would more than compensate for the loss. It gave a better class of students to work upon, and the increased requirements for graduation

guaranteed to the public that the graduates were more thoroughly fitted for their work.

The graduates of this period were 14 from the former first course, 2 from the former second course, and 30 from the revised first course. Mr. Conant, in his report for the three years ended June 30, 1884, gave as the number of different pupils 233; average age of students, 18.8 years; number of Vermont counties represented, 10; number of Vermont towns represented, 58. He also reported progress in these directions: The attendance had become more regular, the practice of entering for partial terms having nearly ceased; the work had become more strictly professional, and hence the school was more sought by teachers; the means of the school to help teachers had been increased.

The sixth and present principal of the school is A. H. Campbell, Ph. D. Dr. Campbell was born in New Hampshire, attended the Nashua High School and New London Academy, graduated from the Bridgewater, Mass., Normal School in 1870, from Mount Vernon Academy in 1872, and from Dartmouth College in 1877. After graduation he was principal of the Kingston, N. H., Academy for three years, was associate principal of Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, Mass., for five years, and in 1884 took charge of the normal school at Johnson. Dr. Campbell's administration has been characterized by a steady increase in the requirements for admission by an advancement in the standard of scholarship and by an increase in the amount of strictly professional work demanded. The model school, consisting of the village primary school, has been maintained in successful operation, all students being required to spend several weeks in teaching and governing the school. "Classes are received from the upper grade of the village school and taught by members of the graduating class under the supervision of the normal teachers, so that the minimum practice of each graduate in teaching during the last two terms is one hour per day for twenty weeks." By vote of the district in 1889, all of the village schools were placed in charge of the normal school principal to be used as training schools.

In his report to the State superintendent of schools for the two years ending June 30, 1886, Mr. Campbell writes:

The whole aim of the school has been to prepare teachers for this work, and no labor or pains have been spared to accomplish this end. The reading room contains all the best journals on popular education, besides daily and weekly papers and scientific and popular magazines. In the library is a complete pedagogical outfit, more than 300 volumes having been added in the last two years.

In addition to the full complement of assistant teachers during Mr. Campbell's administration, Joel Allen, M. D., has for several years lectured to the schools on physiology, hygiene, and anatomy, and T. J. Boynton, now of Montpelier, on civil government. The total